The Kotomi Continuum II
by Mark629
Summary: This story follows five years after the events of The Kotomi Continuum. Be sure to read The Kotomi Continuum first, or this story won't make much sense. The cast is done with colleges and academies, many of them have kids, and Kotomi is bringing her science project home. And of course, I do not own Clannad. Includes some SciFi.
1. Chapter 1 - Homecoming

This story is a continuation of _The Kotomi Continuum_ found in the Anime/Manga Clannad directory.

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 **Tuesday early mor** **ning** **,** **October** **1** **9** **2010** **–** **Near the Furukawa Bakery**

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Late September had been unusually hot, but late October certainly wasn't. Especially not at Dark-30 in the morning. Four men stood in the middle of the park across the street from the Furukawa Bakery wearing generic looking coveralls and carrying generic looking tool boxes. Looking generic was the key; all four of these men had the physique of a bar-room brawler and the fighting skills that went with the look. With the generic worker uniforms they were wearing, they were dressed to draw as little attention to themselves as possible and, so far it was working. Isamu had done this kind of job for _t_ _he Boss_ twice now and was used to it. Hiroki and Iwao had each been on a similar job with him before, but it was Ryota's first time.

"Nothing happened." a confused Ryota looked around and the park looked completely normal. He couldn't tell that anything had changed at all.

"Yuh gotsta be more observant." Iwao's voice boomed as he smacked Ryota on the back of the head.

"Try looking around for things that should be there, but are missing." Isamu suggested.

"Look for what's missing?" Ryota was puzzled but he knew better than to challenge Isamu or Iwao. Not that he didn't think that he could take either of them in a scrap, but they were under strict orders from the Boss to make it a good clean job with no shenanigans. Looking around the park he saw the familiar baseball field, benches, swing, slide, and other kids stuff. He looked past the park and into the street but there was nothing there… _Hey waitaminit!_ "Hey, where did our ride go?"

"Now yer gettin it." Iwao chuckled.

"C'mon, let's move." Isamu started heading for the bakery at a leisurely shuffle, "Iwao, keep your voice down and Ryota, keep looking for other changes… and don't worry about our ride."

"Right boss." Iwao said more quietly.

"Right boss." Ryota agreed as well.

"Dammit!" Isamu hissed through his teeth as he spun around on the other three, "You know the rules. Don't call anybody 'boss' and don't talk like you're in a gang!" He pointed to Hiroki and hissed, "And don't try to look so damn intimidating!"

"Uh, sorry b… Isamu, but this is just how I always look." Hiroki apologized.

"Yeah, I know…" Isamu regretted picking on Hiroki the moment he called him out. It really was just the way the guy looked and there wasn't much he could do about it. Before his first job, the guys had tried to help him look less conspicuous by getting him to smile, but Hiroki's smile was even scarier than his normal face. "Anyways… just try to remember the rules and don't do anything to draw any attention."

CHATHOOOOOOOOOM!

A bright flash lit up the whole park and all the houses and buildings around it as well. The pressure wave and the sound from the explosion broke windows and set off car alarms. The four men in the park had been blown down by the blast.

 _What the hell?_ Isamu blinked and realized he was lying on his friends. A part of his brain was telling him that the blast had come from behind him, in the direction of the bakery. Aside from a splitting headache and a loud ringing in his ears, he didn't feel injured. He was about to ask if the others were okay.

"I didn't do it!" Ryota looked on the verge of panic, "I swear I didn't have nothin to do with that!"

"I know that, baka!" Isamu said as he got to his feet, "We just got here. You haven't had a chance to screw somethin up that much." He was helping Iwao and Ryota to their feet when he heard Hiroki shout.

"Oh shit, it's the bakery!" Hiroki grunted as he took off at a run.

"Crap!" Isamu turned to see the bakery and attached residence in flames. "Ryota! Stay here and call home. Tell them we're gonna need to be picked up early!"

Ryota scampered over to his upturned toolbox and opened it up. Under a tray of ordinary looking tools, he pulled out what looked like a satellite radio.

"You're with me!" Isamu said to Iwao as they grabbed their own tool boxes and headed for the bakery. They didn't yet hear the sound of sirens but it would only be a matter of time before this place was flooded with firemen and… police. As they got close to the bakery, Isamu noticed an injured man sitting in the street and leaning against a light pole. He recognized the man instantly and almost recoiled at the amount of blood the man was sitting in.

"Akio-san!" Isamu yelled as he knelt in the expanding pool of blood and tried to get the dying man's attention, "Akio-san, can you hear me?"

"I don't..." Akio wanted to say that he didn't know who this stranger was. He didn't remember them as regular bakery customers, but it seemed that the other stranger that he just talked to knew his name as well. None of that was of any concern any more; he felt the long sleep coming for him soon. He was in so much pain just a moment ago, but the pain was gone now and he could feel the coming of the inevitable peaceful rest that would end all of his sorrows and regrets. But there was something he had to say… something important he needed to do before he lost his remaining strength.

"Is there anybody else inside?" Isamu yelled over the sounds of the wrecked bakery, to the terminally injured man.

"My grand-daughter… her parents are both dead." Akio gasped for air. His voice was coming out only as a whisper now. Isamu had to put his ear to the dying man's lips to hear his final words, "Her father's family… the Okazaki's… live in Hokkaido. They're all... she has... left."

"Grand-daughter?" Isamu said aloud but he knew that there would be no reply. The old man's eyes were lifeless now and he would answer no more questions. He tried to remember everything he had known about the Furukawa's and everything the Boss had briefed… _Oh crap, it's an Ushio!_

A loud crashing sound signaled the cave-in of the roof over the residence side of the structure just as the first sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance. A wave of heat wafted out into the street and a million tiny glowing embers floated up into the night air like a plume of destructive fireflies.

"Oh shit." Isamu had been just about to run into the house to help Hiroki. He watched in horror as the bakery side of the building fell over and crashed into the remains of the residence.

"Bos… uh, Isamu." Iwao corrected himself as he stood next to Isamu and watched the flames. He said reverently, "Ah don think nobody coulda lived through that."

"Yeah," Iwao felt the vomit rising in his throat as he realized he had just lost a friend, "it was a damn death trap."

"Lucky I got out when I did." Hiroki said from behind the two as he watched the building burn to the ground with them.

Isamu and Iwao slowly turned and saw their gorilla-like friend standing behind them looking scorched and singed despite being soaking wet. Holding a rolled up blanket in his arms, he sounded a little out-of-breath, but otherwise seemed unconcerned about the familiar home burning down in front of him.

"Baka!" Isamu forgot his own admonishment and screamed at his friend, "I thought you were dead! How the hell did you get out of there?"

"The front was on fire real bad, so I went out the back." Hiroki said simply.

"The back wuddent on fire?" Iwao asked.

"Yeah, it was. Just not as bad." Hiroki's teeth were starting to chatter. Although there was some warmth from the burning building across the street, it was still a rather cool morning and he was still soaking wet.

"So, why are you wet and what's with the blanket?" Isamu asked.

"Oh yeah," Hiroki pulled back the blanket to reveal an unconscious little girl, "I dumped a bucket of water over us so the little girl wouldn't get burned."

"Son of a bitch." Isamu gasped as Iwao whistled in amazement. The hair color was a perfect match and her face looked like a younger version of Nagisa-san. There was no doubt in his mind now.

"What?" Hiroki asked.

"That's an Ushio, you mutton-head!" Isamu chided the monster holding the child, "Don't you ever listen to the Boss?"

"Yeah I do," Hiroki said defensively, "but she don't look like Nagisa-san."

"Whadayamean?" Iwao rounded on the wet brute, "She looks zactly like Nagisa-san!"

"Hey boss! Hey boss!" Ryota interrupted their argument with his yelling from where he had set up his radio back in the park near the baseball diamond. His hollering was loud enough to hear over the crackling sounds of the nearby fire and the sirens that sounded like they were only a few streets away now.

"Baka!" Isamu screamed in response. There were already some onlookers in the street, and more were coming out of their houses every moment to see what had happened in their little neighborhood. Most of them were watching the fire and a few were coming over toward where Furukawa Akio's lifeless body lay. Isamu knew that every one of them would remember someone yelling _Hey Boss_ during the crisis. _This place is going to be permanently off-limits now. When we g_ _e_ _t home, I'm going to beat that idiot Ryota with a copy of the rules until he can't move any more!_

"Thirty seconds!" Ryota yelled so all three of them could hear him, "Move your ass!"

"Shit!" all three of them said. Hiroki took off running with the little girl in his arms as the other two grabbed their tool boxes and followed at a good lope. Thirty seconds was enough time to get to the pick-up spot, but now there was no way they could conceal anything. If any of these bystanders turned away from the fire, they would see something they wouldn't soon forget.

"Boss," Iwao asked as he ran alongside Isamu, "What do we do wit da girl?"

"We take her." Isamu replied decisively. He knew it was against the rules, but the rules didn't really cover something that went this bad - this fast. Before he died, Akio-san had told him about her only living relatives, but none of them could stick around to talk to the authorities to relay that message. One thing that was abundantly clear in the rules was to _never_ get involved with the authorities.

"You sure?" Iwao asked, "The Boss is gonna have your ass for this."

"Yeah, maybe." Isamu grunted, "But I don't see that we got a choice."

"Seven… six…" Ryota was calling the numbers out as they gathered around his radio. He already had his visor on and could see the first of the baubles of light swirling around them. He noticed that Hiroki had his arms full and reaching over, put the big guy's visor over his eyes for him.

"… five… four…" There were a lot of the light baubles now. On the trip here, Ryota had been scared of them touching him but he found out quickly that they couldn't be felt or touched: they could only be seen. Even now, some of the swirling baubles were passing through his arm that held the transmitter and countdown timer.

A scream from behind them drew Isamu's attention. Apparently, the gathering neighbors had just realized that the dead guy in the street was their baker friend. Fortunately, that little discovery seemed to draw the neighbor's attention from everything else.

"… three… two…" Ryota wondered what was under the blanket that Hiroki was carrying, but that would have to wait. The light baubles had reached the intensity of a full white-out blizzard and they could all hear the recovery tone from the radio. "… one… zero!"

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For the eternity of a single moment, there was the sensation that they had just been dumped into freezing cold water.

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 **! STOP !**

I'm guessing that you are pretty upset, maybe even pissed right now. I can understand that. After all, in the first half of the first chapter, four of the most beloved Clannad characters seem to have been wiped out. But, before you go any further, there is something you should know.

1\. The Furukawa Bakery did not explode.

2\. The Furukawa's and Tomoya that you read about in The Kotomi Continuum are all just fine.

I'm telling you this so you won't get too upset and possibly have a health crisis… or hate me… or both.

So, if they are all okay, you should feel a bit more relaxed now. But there remains an intriguing question:

Where the heck did Ushio come from?

Don't worry, that is the story that is about to be told. But to tell that story, I need to back up just a bit:

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 **135 Days before the aforementioned fire.**

 **6 years and 97 days after Tomoya left for America with Koumura Toshio.**

 **Sun** **day** **afternoon** **,** **June 6** **2010** **–** **Train Station**

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Tomoya was exhausted but there was still a little bit farther to go before they would finally be home.

Home…

Even though he had lived in the Okazaki house for over a decade before high school, and he had just spent six years in the same house in America, Tomoya never could think of those places as _home_. It would be the Ichinose house, where he lived for a little over half a year, that would forever be home in his heart. Even with the modifications he and Kotomi had discussed, he wondered if it would be big enough now. Their _family_ was quite a bit larger now. In fact, it had more than doubled since the three of them had left Japan just six years ago. But those concerns would have to wait. For now, he just needed to get everyone safely there.

Tomoya was about to start the process to arrange for transportation when a commercial bus pulled up in front of the station. He was about to laugh at the absurdity of leasing a bus to pick someone up at a public terminal when he saw a funny looking policeman emerge from the big vehicle. It wasn't the fact that he was a policeman that was so funny looking. It was the black hair. Of course, Tomoya had seen Youhei in his black hair once when he had come back for his friend's wedding. But, it still looked odd.

"Still got the black hair, eh?" Tomoya verbally poked at his old friend.

Ignoring Tomoya's attempt to spar, Youhei threw his arms wide and loudly announced, "Hail the conquering heroes!" Several people entering and leaving the train station looked around to see what was going on and Youhei finished with, "They went to America's universities and came back with all their degree's!"

Kotomi was about to point out that they did not acquire all the possible degree's but the reactions from Tomoya and Kyou told her that this was a humorous phrasing and not meant to be taken as a precise statement. They had completed quite a few though. In the six years they were gone, Tomoya had finished college and law school. Kyou had completed a degree in mathematics to satisfy her parents, and had also acquired a Masters degree in education. Having the twins and their younger sister did not slow Kotomi down much. She returned with two Doctorate degrees in subjects that made Tomoya and Kyou's eyes glaze over.

There was applause from behind Youhei and the group was pleasantly surprised to see Kobayashi-hakase and Yukine come into view. Yukine's smile was as warm as ever, and holding onto the tail of her blouse was…

"Oh my gods!" Kyou left her bags where they were and rushed over, "He's adorable Yukine!" Dropping to her knees, she looked the little boy in the eye and asked him, "My name is Kyou, can I give you a hug?"

"It's okay," Yukine smiled when her son looked up to her for permission, "Kyou-chan is one of mama and papa's best friends."

The little boy turned back to the anxiously waiting, lavender haired woman. His blue eyes seemed to twinkle and his lips formed an innocent and eager smile as he opened his arms for the offered affection.

Kyou swooped him up and held him tight but he didn't seem to mind at all. "He's so cute… he's so adorable!" Kyou cooed as she swayed with the small child in her arms.

At only four years old, he didn't know why this lady was enjoying the hug so much, but he was old enough to understand happiness and he knew he was making her happy right now. His small hands reached around her neck and played with the pretty lavender hair.

"And, who is this lovely little lady?" Youhei asked the blue eyed, purple haired girl peeking out from behind Tomoya's legs. As soon as Youhei started speaking to her, she fully retreated with a squeak. Almost the moment the squeak came out, two boys moved up to either side of their father to further shield the little girl.

#She's my little sister.# the taller of the two boys said in English.

"In Japanese, Shuichi." Tomoya admonished his son, "We are in Japan now, so you need to get in the habit of speaking Japanese."

"She is my little sister." Shuichi repeated the comment in clipped Japanese.

"Her name is Michiko, but you can not talk to her because she is shy." the other boy told Youhei.

"Oh, okay." Youhei stood back up and asked Tomoya, "The boys have a problem with Japanese?"

"Hey, give them a break." Tomoya put his hands on his son's heads, "They're only six years old. Being able to speak English and Japanese as well as they do is pretty remarkable."

"Oh yeah," Youhei said, "I keep forgetting they are only six. When I look at them, I'm thinking nine or ten year olds."

"All three of them are very tall for their ages." Tomoya said with a bit of pride, "The boys are already four-one and four-two!"

"Four-one and four-two?" Youhei asked.

"Sorry," Tomoya winced at his mistake, "they still use imperial measurements over there. Shuichi is 128 centimeters." Tomoya indicated the slightly taller boy with the purple eyes and steel-blue hair. Then he indicated the boy with the blue eyes and dark brown hair and said, "Shuji is 125 centimeters."

"Whoa!" Youhei did some quick math with their birthdays and commented, "They're going to be giants to all the other Kindergarten kids."

"They won't be going into Kindergarten." Tomoya explained, "The school year in America starts in August and is over at the end of May. They just finished Kindergarten back in America. Actually, the academy where Kotomi had them enrolled used a different format for teaching so we won't know what grade they should be in until we have them tested."

"Heh," Youhei laughed, "they've got Kotomi's genes, right? They might go straight to high school." Youhei was looking at the younger of the twins. With his blue eyes and dark brown hair, he looked like he could be an older brother to his own son, Yoichi. Of course, their faces were different. He could see a lot of Kotomi in all of the Okazaki children.

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"Kotomi-chan. Toshio-san. It is good to see you again." Kobayashi Jun greeted them both as friends. "I hope your time abroad was rewarding."

"Indeed it was," Koumura Toshio smiled, "but it is good to be home again." Looking past Jun he asked, "I assume the bus is for us?"

"It is," Jun looked over at where Tomoya and Youhei were talking, "Sunohara-san arranged for the bus. I suggested several vans, but he wanted everyone to ride together."

"It seems that he has turned out to be quite dependable." Toshio smiled at the personal victory while he gazed over at the young man in the uniform of a police officer. He had never imagined Youhei in any kind of uniform other than what he might wear for a sports team, but the old former counselor had to admit that the blue uniform looked good on the young man.

"From what I understand, he won't be wearing that uniform for much longer." Jun said with a knowing smile.

"Oh?" Toshio queried.

"Sunohara has already passed his detective exams. He'll be promoted within the next two months." Jun gave the venerable old man yet another point of pride to keep for his own.

Just then, Koumura felt a small hand take his. He looked down to see little Michiko standing next to him with her arms outstretched. The little girl looked terribly tired.

"Ojiisan?" the four year old pleaded with a weary pout on her face.

"Very well then, young miss." Koumura lifted the little girl into his arms and let her rest her head on his shoulder. "I can tell that you're tired but you've been a very good girl."

Tired as she was, there was a little smile on her face at the praise from her beloved Ojiisan.

"Well then," Toshio turned to Kotomi, "I suppose you two will want to catch up a bit. I'll see about getting the bus loaded." With the sleepy four year old girl in his arms, a bow wouldn't be possible, but Koumura gave a polite nod as he turned to be about his duty.

"Yes, thank you Toshio-san." Kotomi barely waited for Toshio to turn away before her attention was on Jun. "Have all the modifications been completed?" Kotomi had forgotten her exhaustion in the excitement of seeing Kobayashi Jun and possibly getting a progress update on the various projects she had asked him to manage for her.

"Relax Kotomi-chan," Jun chuckled, "everything is moving along nicely. The permit to use the public park for the experiments was easier to acquire than I had predicted. It looks like you have a friend in the local government"

"Tomoyo-chan?" Kotomi's eyes opened wide. She, Tomoya, and Kyou had kept in touch with Tomoyo over the years. Kotomi knew that Tomoyo had done well at the University of Hokkaido and had come back home to put her Political Science degree to work. Politics was a big game though, so she was working in the bureaucracy while she learned all the the things that college classes didn't teach her. Kotomi was not aware that Tomoyo had done well enough to be able to influence decisions though.

"Yes," Kobayashi nodded, "she has been doing well since her return from Hokkaido… at least professionally. I don't know any more than that." Jun was trying to get Kotomi to re-engage with her old friends on a non-professional level. She had made enormous gains with her interpersonal skills since the dark days before Tomoya found her again and Jun didn't want to see her lose any of it.

"And the acquisitions we talked about?" Kotomi did want to catch up with Tomoyo-chan, but she was far too excited about getting the latest status right now.

"Slow down, Kotomi-chan." Jun chuckled. Then he cautioned the younger colleague, "You've got years of project work and experiments ahead of you. If you keep up this level of energy, you might burn yourself out."

"Kobayashi-san, did you not read my last submission?" Kotomi asked her long time mentor and former guardian.

"I scanned through it, but I have yet to go through it in detail." Jun admitted. He only got her last submission a few days ago and it was over seven hundred pages after all.

"Allow me to explain…" Kotomi started but appeared to reconsider, "never-mind – I shall summarize. Once we have the local setup working, I expect to have useful data within thirty days."

"Thirty days?" Kobayashi was stunned. He had been projecting three years before they could capture anything that could be called _useful data_. He was about to caution her against overly optimistic predictions when she hit him again.

"I believe we will have a contact-level experiment within three months." Kotomi said confidently.

Kobayashi Jun's mouth was hanging open at this point. He had seen nothing from the Marsh Particle Accelerator results that could corroborate these claims. _What the hell did Kotomi find that I didn't?_

"What about the…" Kotomi's next question was interrupted by Tomoya calling out to everyone there.

"All right, let's get on the bus and go home!" Tomoya urged, "You can finish talking there but the kids are tired and so am I."

"Ha ha ha!" Youhei laughed, "Did you turn into an old man while you were gone?"

"Sunohara-san?" a quiet voice called out to Youhei.

"Ulp." Youhei immediately regretted his choice of words when he turned to see Koumura regarding him.

"Such an outburst is unbecoming of someone wearing the uniform, is it not?" Koumura asked him quietly.

"Sorry, Koumura-sensei" Youhei bowed to the older man. His shame at insulting the old man was building when he heard the quiet old voice again.

"I have been keeping track of you these past six years, you know." Koumura said, "I am proud of you, Sunohara-san. You have taken your weaknesses and turned them into strengths. I look forward to seeing you continue to do well."

Youhei's mouth was agape as the old man continued on his way to the bus with the little girl in his arms. Tomoya smiled and recalled the lessons he had learned from the old man over the years. _Discipline only as necessary and praise whenever possible._

When Koumura got to the bus he had to put Michiko down, but Yoichi was already at the steps and flashing that almost mesmerizing smile.

"You can sit next to me." Yoichi offered his hand to Tomoya and Kotomi's painfully shy daughter. At first, it didn't look like Michiko would accept. She started to recoil from another stranger but there was something about him that seemed safe. Although she was a month younger than Yoichi, she was almost fifteen centimeters taller. But still, she felt her fear and shyness slipping away when she was near him.

"Okay," Michiko stunned both of her parents, Kyou, and Toshio – when she took the shorter boy's hand and walked with him onto the waiting bus.

"Your son is quite the charmer." Toshio observed.

"Yup," Youhei said proudly, "like father like son!"

"No," Kyou rejected Youhei's comment, "Yoichi didn't sound the least bit sleazy."

"Huh… HEY!" Youhei started to bluster, but laughed instead. "It's good to see you haven't changed too much, Kyou."

.

 **Sun** **day** **afternoon** **,** **June 6** **–** **Ichinose residence**

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Several hours ago, Tomoyo and Sanae had been the first to arrive at the Ichinose home. Well, they were the first helpers to arrive. From the look of the men working on the home's expansion, the construction workers had been working on the new addition to the house since dawn.

When Tomoyo and Sanae got inside, they faced a moment of shock. They had both expected to feel like they had stepped back in time. They were expecting the place to look like it had five years ago when Tomoyo had finished her last year of high school. During that year, she had never done anything to the house that would disturb it from the way Kotomi had left it. Apparently, Sunohara Mei had not felt the same obligation to sentimentality.

Mei had lived in the Ichinose residence after Tomoyo went off to University in Hokkaido. She had been there for the three years that she had attended Hikarizaka Private High School.

The hardwoods had been sanded down and re-stained to a lighter shade. The walls had been painted in warmer and lighter colors. With those two changes alone, the rooms seemed brighter and more open. It seemed that Mei's touch was everywhere they looked.

"No!" Tomoyo and Sanae looked at each other as they both wondered the same thing. _Surely she didn't change the study!_ Since the day of the plane crash, Kotomi had tried to keep the study exactly how it had been the last time she had seen her parents. Even though she herself had caused damage to the room when she tried to burn the envelope that she mistakenly believed had been the cause of her parents demise, the study remained essentially unchanged. Tomoyo never used the room; it had still reeked of the fire from so long ago. Worried at what they might find, they ran up the stairs and saw that the room was… gone?

"Huh?" Sanae walked closer to where the room should be but found only a hallway. On the other end of the hallway was a sheet of plastic nailed into place and on the other side of that…

"The new wing!" Tomoyo figured it out. She could see sunlight through the plastic and the sounds of power-saws and hammering echoed down what was now the upstairs hallway to the home's additional rooms.

"Did… did Kotomi approve this?" Sanae wondered.

"She must have." Tomoyo assumed for the best, "either way… there's nothing we can do about it now."

"I hope this is okay." Sanae admired the workmanship of the new hallway. More had been done here than just taking out the far wall and calling it a hallway. The hallway was narrower than the missing room had been. That meant that they had opened up the rooms on either side of the former study and fundamentally changed the floor-plan. "I've got to say, they've done some really good work here."

"Yeah," Tomoyo agreed, "Yukine's boys have learned some good skills."

"Well, sightseeing is over." Sanae clapped her hands and summoned her will to tackle the kitchen, "Let's get to work!"

By the time the next set of helpers arrived, the kitchen was fresh and clean, things were put away, and they had already started making a lunch for all the people that were expected.

"Hey Tomoyo," Sanae wondered as she stirred a broth, "how do we know that we put things where Kotomi wants them?"

"I lived in this house for a year and a half." Tomoyo answered, "I never changed anything up so I know where things were when she lived here before."

"Her preferences may have changed in the last six years." Sanae suggested.

"In that case," Tomoyo gave a lopsided smile, "she can re-arrange to her heart's content."

"We're here!" two girl's voices harmonized as they called out from the front door. Their voices were recognized instantly without the need to ask for names. Sanae dropped the stirring spoon in her excitement.

"Ah!" Sanae cried out and ran to give her daughters a hug. That was how she though of them even though only Nagisa was her actual daughter. As Nagisa's lover and partner, Fujibayashi Ryou had become as close to the Furukawa family as a daughter could be.

Tomoyo only smiled and picked up Sanae's abandoned spoon to continue stirring the broth until Sanae had finished hugging her precious girls. She smiled as she remembered the warmth that seemed to radiate from the Furukawa family. It was good to be close to the care and love that surrounded the Furukawa family again. Tomoyo was thinking about the warmth of families when she noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye.

A large sweaty man was in the living room holding a hammer. It would be easy to see his rough countenance as an intimidating thug, but right now he looked like he was seeing a ghost. Tomoyo noticed that his mouth was moving but no sound was coming out.

"Can I help you?" Tomoyo asked casually. She had already sized up the conflict potential and the man was at a serious disadvantage. Sure, he had a hammer in his hand, but she was in the kitchen just a step away from the knife rack. Not that she would need the knife…

"Sakagami Tomoyo?" the man asked in a scared half-whisper as if he was afraid to say the name aloud.

"Yes." She didn't ask who he was. She didn't know his name, but she had a good idea what his affiliation was.

"I… I thought you left town." he was visibly sweating as he asked.

"I went to university in Hokkaido but I came back after I graduated." Tomoyo told him.

"Oh… uh… I… I don't know if you remember me but," the man swallowed hard, "you almost killed me once. You… you beat me real bad."

"I used to beat up a lot of people." Tomoyo knew that she needed to end the man's fear before he did something foolish, "They were all thugs, bullies, criminals… but I never once beat up a carpenter."

"Huh?" the man sounded confused.

"The hammer is a carpenters hammer isn't it?" Tomoyo asked, "Are you a carpenter now?"

"Oh this?" the man seemed less worried now, "this is a claw hammer. Isamu is letting me borrow it until I have enough money to get a framing hammer."

"Framing hammer?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yeah. I'm a roofer." the man said proudly, but then looked worried. After all, Tomoyo hadn't said that she didn't beat up roofers.

"That is an honest skill too." Tomoyo smiled and eased the man's mind, "And being a roofer is an honest profession. I would never beat up a roofer."

"Ya blockhead!" the man's head was hit from behind by a smaller man, "Stop bothering the lady and get back to work!"

"Yes boss!" the man rushed out of the patio door. Tomoyo noted that this _boss_ may be smaller than the big roofer, but still seemed to command the bigger man's respect.

"And don't call me boss!" Isamu yelled at the back of the retreating roofer. Turning to Tomoyo he told her, "He was on the roof and saw you when you came in. He's been nervous all morning."

"I think he'll be okay now." Tomoyo smiled.

"Why is that?" Isamu took a step closer, but still kept a safe distance.

"I told him that I never beat up anyone doing an honest job." Tomoyo said, "Criminals and bullies, sure. But not roofers, carpenters, or plumbers."

"You've never actually met a plumber have you?" Isamu laughed.

"I guess not. Why?" Tomoya asked.

"A lot of them will rip you off worse than most criminals." Isamu then asked, "And what about that cop? I heard you used to beat him half to death."

"Sunohara? That was a misunderstanding." Tomoyo laughed.

"That was a long time ago and he wasn't a policeman back then." Nagisa's voice came from the living room where the other three girls had been watching the conversation.

"And she didn't ever start it. Sunohara attacked her every time." Ryou added.

"He attacked you?" Isamu's disbelief was clearly evident when he asked Tomoyo. Without waiting for a reply he commented, "He's got guts. That's for sure. Maybe not much in brains, but he's definitely got guts."

All four of the women in the room would like to have defended Youhei, but they couldn't honestly argue against Isamu's conclusion. At least, back then he was not showing a lot of intelligence.

"You're Isamu-san, right?" Tomoyo asked.

"Uh… yeah." Isamu wondered how she knew who he was.

"Tell your boys that I'm making them some lunch. It will be ready in thirty minutes." Tomoyo told him.

"Really? Uh… sure! I'll get right on that!" and he was on his way out. Just as he stepped out onto the back patio, he spun around and said, "Oh I almost forgot, Yukine-sama said the electrician guy would be coming by today. We're ready for him as soon as he gets here."

"I'll be sure to let him know." Sanae told him. After he left, the three girls in the living room turned to Tomoyo.

"You're making lunch… for them?" Nagisa was surprised. She knew that Tomoyo had participated in making lunch for the guys that were working on the Okazaki house several years ago, but that was a group effort with her friends.

"Yes. They are working hard." Tomoyo tasted the broth and decided it needed more salt. Then she asked Nagisa, "Why do you ask?"

"You're a lot more forgiving than I thought." Nagisa said, "Didn't you use to fight with them?"

"That was a long time ago and they are trying to work honestly now." Tomoyo looked out the windows in the direction of the new wing as she said, "If I think I deserve a second chance, I would need to give others a second chance too."

Nagisa was about to ask Tomoyo what she meant about second chances when she heard the front door open again. This time Sanae stayed with Tomoyo in the kitchen when they heard a chorus of voices announcing that more of her friends had arrived.

.

By the time Sunohara's bus pulled up in front of the Ichinose residence, the work inside the house was almost finished. Tomoyo and Sanae were still in the kitchen and had a large pot of Ishikari-nabe ready. During her years of study at the University of Hokkaido, Tomoyo had been introduced to the hearty flavor of the salmon and vegetable stew. It had been one of her favorite meals, when she could afford it. Sanae had mentioned that Tomoya's family was originally from Hokkaido, but he had not grown up there so Tomoyo worried a little that he might not like it.

Upstairs, in the master bedroom, Ryou and Nagisa had finished unpacking and putting away all the boxes that had been pre-shipped. Nagisa was surprised, but said nothing when she saw that Kyou-chan's personal belongings were to be unpacked and put away in the same room with Tomoya and Kotomi's belongings. Then again, the three of them had become very close ever since that terrible night when Nagisa and Tomoya almost froze to death… or perhaps even farther back – when they had the basketball game to save the Drama Club. In any case, Nagisa decided that she was not in any position to criticize their lifestyle when she was in a loving relationship with Kyou's younger sister. Nagisa found herself blushing as she hung up a beautiful shimmering dress that Kyou surely wore to some gala occasion. There was another lovely dress on Kotomi's side of the closet and Nagisa noted that the colors were complementary. She was wondering if they went to some event with each other or if they both went with Tomoya. But it was when she wondered what she and Ryou would look like together in such lovely dresses that really deepened her blush.

Kouko was in the bedroom that had been set up for little Michiko. She had seen several pictures of the little girl and her two older brothers, but it wasn't until she had the child's clothes in her hands that she realized how big the girl was. Kouko's daughter – Maiko, was a year older than the Okazaki daughter. But from the looks of the clothes that she had been putting away, Michiko was both taller and bigger than Maiko. She was definitely taller than Kouko's son – Yasuo, who was the same age as Michiko and Sunohara's son, Yoichi. Kouko hoped they would all play well together and smiled at the thought that the three kids would be going to Kindergarten with each other next year.

As soon as Yusuke was finished with the wiring in the wing that Iwao and his cohorts were working on, he came back inside to help Furukawa Akio with assembling the bunk beds in the boy's room. Akio complemented Yusuke on his son and daughter and asked how the comatose Fuko was doing. Yusuke gave simple answers but seemed to want to concentrate on the work. Akio knew that Yusuke was a man of few words unless he was going off on one of his inspirational orations, so he didn't pry. In truth, Yusuke wanted to boast about his children, but he had been warned by his wife that children might be a delicate subject for Akio and Sanae. Kouko had let him know that even if the Furukawa's daughter – Nagisa, hadn't been in a relationship with another girl, she was physically frail and might not survive bringing a child to term. For a proud papa who had over a thousand pictures of his son and daughter on his cell phone, it was a difficult task to keep quiet after he had been asked… but Yusuke persevered.

Downstairs in the Dojo that used to be a dining room, the ikiryo of Ibuki Fuko was playing with… uh… watching over… her own niece and nephew. This is the Fuko that all the Hikarizaka Private High School students had come to know, and she had not changed at all in the last six years. In fact, she was still wearing the school's winter uniform just as she always did when she appeared to her friends. Fuko's niece, Maiko was an energetic child and was dancing around in circles in front of the floor to ceiling mirrors that adorned one wall of the Dojo. She had her mother's gentle face and her father's blue eyes. Her reddish brown hair must have also come from her mother's side. Fuko also knew that when these two grew up, they would be tall like both of their parents, but for now Fuko was happy that she was forty to fifty centimeters taller than her niece and nephew. Fuko was presently playing hard with… uh… watching over her nephew, Yasuo as he practiced punching the padded gloves that Fuko was wearing. He had reddish brown hair like his sister and light brown eyes like his mother, but his handsome face looked like a younger image of his father.

"One two! One two!" Fuko called out for the four year old to hit the gloves with his tiny fists. She remembered the horrible Okazaki-san teasing her like this many years ago, but the little four year old wasn't scary and didn't hit very hard at all. Still, Fuko couldn't help but close her eyes every time the boy hit one of the gloves on her hands.

"Am I doing it right, Obachan?" Little Yasuo asked brightly.

"Yes, you're doing great! But remember your promise to Fuko." Fuko reminded him, "After you hit the gloves ten times, Fuko gets to hug you."

"Okaaaay." Yasuo liked his aunt and didn't mind her hugs too much. But sometimes she seemed to forget what she was doing and hugged him too long.

"Obachan, Obachan!" Maiko squealed from the other end of the room, "Do the people that are coming here have any kids for us to play with?"

"Yes," Fuko recalled, "They have two boys and a girl."

"Ugh," Maiko sounded as disgusted as if she had just stepped on a cockroach with her bare foot, "… more little brothers."

"No… Fuko thinks the boys are older." Fuko tried to remember but was having a hard time of it.

"Older than me?" Maiko sounded shocked. Very few of the kids in her Kindergarten class had any siblings at all, but those that did seemed to be older sisters or younger brothers. She knew that there were boys that were older than her in all the grades above Kindergarten, but they were all annoying like her little brother. She had played with Sunohara Yoichi several times and he wasn't so bad, but he was a grade younger than her, like her own little brother. For some reason, being the same age as her annoying little brother made him annoying too. _Older brothers… I wonder what that's like?_

.

Unfortunately, and much to Maiko's displeasure, the kids didn't get a chance to meet each other that day. The trip had been too long and the Okazaki children were just too tired. The adults were tired as well but they knew their responsibility to burn off the jet-lag as quickly as possible. They pushed themselves to stay awake as long as they could, but the sun was still up when they just couldn't last any longer.

.

 **Mon** **day** **morning** **,** **June** **7** **–** **Ichinose residence**

* * *

Tomoya awoke to the smell of… omelet rice? That wasn't something Koumura-san typically made. Kyou's head was resting on the left side of his chest and Kotomi's head was on his right, so it wasn't one of the girls.

"Do you smell omelet-rice?" Kyou asked Kotomi. The way their heads lay on Tomoya's chest when they slept meant that they ended up looking into each other's eyes when they woke up. Confused purple eyes looked into amused purple eyes and wondered where the lovely smell was coming from.

"You don't think the boys are trying to cook again?" Tomoya asked dubiously. The last time they tried to cook, Tomoya had to empty a fire extinguisher and it took a month to rebuild the kitchen. It took longer for him to rebuild his pride.

"I hate to say it," Kotomi said dryly, "but logically, if it was the boys, it probably wouldn't smell this good."

"Hee hee." Kyou couldn't help but laugh. She remembered the boys' tragic attempt to cook too. It had been the previous September.

* * *

 _The semester had just started up and Kyou was riding her motorcycle back from the school when she saw the fire trucks in front of the place where she lived. Momentary panic faded when she saw that the whole family was outside on the lawn in front of the house. She could see the boys looking upset and Tomoya was livid. Kotomi was a few steps behind Tomoya and holding their frightened daughter. Kyou couldn't tell if little Michiko was more afraid of the house fire or her father's fury. Taking off her helmet, she could hear Tomoya as he lit into his sons._

" _What were you two thinking?" Tomoya demanded. Kyou could tell that he wanted to use other words, but there were some things you didn't say in front of your five year old children, no matter how upset you are._

" _We wanted to make a… a birthday cake." Shuji explained sorrowfully._

" _A birthday cake?" Tomoya was now confused and angry, "Your birthday was in May!"_

" _Not for us," Shuichi said defiantly, "it was for Kyou-mama!"_

" _Today is her birthday." Shuji added._

" _But…" Tomoya's face paled. The boys had just burned down the kitchen, but he had forgotten Kyou's birthday. He instantly knew which was the greater sin._

" _Oh my dear lovely boys, you were making me a birthday cake?" Kyou said as she walked past the now stricken Tomoya and embraced the two teary-eyed boys. "I am so proud of you for thinking of me. Let's get you inside and washed up. Then we'll go out to eat with Mama and Michiko, okay?"_

" _What about daddy?" Shuichi asked._

" _Daddy's in the dog house right now," Kyou said seriously but without anger, "and people in the dog house don't get to do nice things… until they're allowed out of the dog house."_

" _But we don't have a dog?" Shuji asked innocently._

" _Or a dog house." Shuichi added._

" _That's enough questions for now." Kyou smiled and took the two boys by the hands and led them back into the house to get cleaned up._

 _Tomoya would swear that at that moment, Kyou's normally purple eyes were red like glowing embers and her entire head was blotted out by a dark aura. Although both of the boys felt nothing but warmth and love from their Kyou-mama, Tomoya could only feel a cold chill pass through him as she walked by._

* * *

"Heh heh heh heh," Kyou couldn't help but chuckle as she remembered the events from her last birthday too.

"So then… someone broke into our home, ransacked our kitchen, and is making themselves breakfast?" Tomoya vocalized the improbable possibility.

"Ku ku ku ku!" Kyou was laughing harder at Tomoya's absurd idea.

"Not just somebody," a high pitched voice said from beside the bed, "Yu-chan is making breakfast… and it's ready now."

"Fuko!" a startled Tomoya hadn't noticed her in the room until the moment she spoke. Then again, an ikiryo could do that, couldn't she.

"What?" Fuko sounded as startled as Tomoya did.

"Are you and Yukine-chan the only ones here?" Kotomi asked.

"No," Fuko answered, "we brought Yoichi-kun and Yasuo-kun too. Fuko wanted to bring Maiko-chan but she had to go to school today."

"Fuko-chan," Kotomi slid out of bed and took Fuko by the hands, "I know this is quite an imposition to ask this of you, but can you watch the children for a while after breakfast?"

"F… Fuko?" Fuko looked as if she were about to go into her starfish trance at the mere thought of being left to play with… uh… watch all the children. Just as suddenly, the trance broke and she said with determination, "Fuko can do it! You can count on Fuko."

"Thank you Fuko," Tomoya said while getting up, "If you would, please tell Yukine that we are up now and we will be dressed and down in a few minutes."

"Fuko can do that too!" the short girl in the high school uniform and big blue hair bow said as she raced from the room.

"Well," Kyou observed, "there's someone that hasn't changed at all in six years."

.

"Michiko-chan." a soft voice called as little fingers carefully brushed aside strands of deep purple hair from the sleeping girl's face.

The little girl heard her name being called as if from very far away. She had been dreaming about the day that Mama and Kyou-mama told her that the family was going to move far away and it had been a unpleasant memory from a disturbing event.

"No… I don't want to go." Michiko repeated the words that she had said almost a month ago.

"Michiko-chan." the voice sounded friendly as it called to her. The voice sounded so friendly that the persistant unpleasantness seemed wrong somehow.

"This is my home. I don't want to leave." Michiko started to cry just as she did when her two mama's told her that she had to go. They had explained that the whole family would be moving and they were not going to leave her behind.

"Michiko-chan." the voice was kind and she felt warm hands holding her hands. She clung to the hands in hopes that they could help her through this nightmare.

"It's too far… I don't want to!" Michiko grasped the hands as if they were the only friends she had left. _Why do I have to leave my home? I finally made friends with some other kids in my preschool! This is my home, it's the only place I've ever known!_ "Why? Why?"

"Michiko-chan." the soft voice was right next to her and she felt the lips of a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Michiko's eyes sprung open and she was looking at an unfamiliar face. She was about to cry out when she suddenly remembered the face from the bus. "Yo… Yoichi?"

"Yes." the boy smiled. "Were you having a bad dream?"

"Uh huh." Michiko admitted. She wanted to say more but she was captivated by the smile in front of her. It was as if all the fears from the bad memory were just melting away when she looked at that smile. He had blue eyes and brown hair like her brother Shuji, but his smile… That smile…

"When I have a bad dream, my haha will kiss my forehead and it makes me feel better." Yoichi explained, "Did I make you feel better."

"Yeah, you did." Michiko then asked, "What is a haha?"

"Huh?" Yoichi was confused for only a moment but remembered that his mother told her that the Okazaki children moved here from a land where not many people speak Japanese. "Okasan is my haha."

"Okasan..." now Michiko brightened, "so haha is like mama!"

"Yes!" Yoichi agreed.

"But, um… why are you in my bed?" Michiko wasn't upset or even embarrassed; she just wanted to know.

"Oh yeah!" Yoichi brightened as if he remembered an important thing, "I came to get you. My haha made breakfast for everyone this morning!" Yoichi slid out of Michiko's bed without letting go of her hands and turned back to her with his radiant smile.

"Really? It smells good." Michiko just now noticed the yummy smell in the air. It was sort of like scrambled eggs but different. Sitting up in alarm, she cried out, "Oh no… are my brothers awake?"

"Yes," Yoichi told her as she slid out of her bed to stand next to him, "Yasuo woke them up when I came to get you."

"We better hurry then or there won't be any food left!" Standing next to the boy whose smile had captivated her, she was almost fifteen centimeters taller than him, but four year olds rarely care about such things so neither of them commented on it.

"Don't worry," Yoichi laughed, "my haha made lots!"

Fortunately, Yoichi was right – Yukine had made a lot of food for everyone.

Unfortunately, Michiko was also right – her brothers could put away a truly staggering amount of food.

.

 **Mon** **day** **afternoon** **,** **June** **7** **–** **Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

"I'll need to speak to the mother and father alone." the school administrator said as she came into the room where one man and two women were seated. The lavender haired woman started to get up but the man seated next to her blocked her with his hand as the purple haired woman spoke up.

"Kyou-chan must stay." Kotomi said, "You must treat her as if she is also a parent."

Kyou blushed that Tomoya and Kotomi would defend her so firmly.

"We can't do that." the school administrator said in a bored voice as if she had to deal with troublesome parents all the time. "We have rules here and we do not make exceptions."

"We have legal documents that give Kyou full parental rights." Tomoya said levelly.

"We do _not_ make exceptions." the administrator was getting weary of these tiresome people. The sooner they realized they had no other options and listened to reason, the sooner she could be done with them.

"Then our children will go to another school." Kotomi stood up and picked up her purse to leave. As soon as she stood up, Tomoya also stood and offered a hand to Kyou.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?" the administrator gaped.

"She thinks she is Ichinose Kotomi," Kyou used Kotomi's professional name as she also got up to leave.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of Okinawa." the administrator laughed at them.

"Actually," Tomoya waited until the girls were out of the room to tell the administrator, "she is Ichinose Kotomi, but she married me." His finger tapped the stack of forms on the desk between them, "So now she is Okazaki Kotomi."

"Eh?" the blood drained from the administrator's face. Everyone in this town knew who Ichinose Kotomi was. That damned Hikarizaka Private High School always put her name at the top of their list when they bragged about their graduates. _But wait… that means…_

"Okazaki-san. Fujibayashi-san." a middle aged man was bowing in the hallway as they left the administrators office. "I am the principal of Aoki Elementary School. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, but I'm afraid we are on our way out." Tomoya told him.

"Eh?" the principal blanched and looked past the three at the administrator now cowering in her own doorway. "Please come with me. I'm sure there has been a misunderstanding and I will do everything in my power to resolve it."

"Before we waste any more of each other's time, let me ask you this question," Tomoya's bearing suddenly reflected the education and training that college and law school had given him, "If I were to present you with a legal document that gives Fujibayashi Kyou full guardian rights regarding my children, would this school accept it? And, would there be anything that the school would not be able to discuss with her that they would be able to discuss with Kotomi or me?"

"You… have such a document?" the principal asked.

"I do." Tomoya held out a tri-folded document that bore a Prefecture Government seal.

"Of course, the school would observe any legally binding order." the principal now knew what the issue had been that had upset the parents of the prospective students. "If it is your wish and if the legal document supports it, we will give Fujibayashi Kyou full parental access."

"If I may ask," Kyou faced the principal, "Why are you so eager to get the boys into your school?"

"Well," the principal admitted, "their test scores are unbelievable. Their lowest scores are in Japanese where they are barely at first grade level, but their math and science scores are off the charts. To be sure, I gave them tests for subjects that they won't be covering until third through fifth grade and they still did well. To be honest, it is a shame you're not in a bigger city where you could find an academy to match their talents."

"That can't be helped." Kotomi said. She had thought long and hard about this move and what it would mean to the children's education, but in the end, she just couldn't send them away to a boarding academy and she had to be here for her research to continue.

"Principal, I wonder if there might actually be a solution that could also benefit the school?" Tomoya offered as he started the group walking in the direction of the testing center where the boys were.

"Oh?" the Principal hadn't heard that much about the boys' father as he had about their mother but he was becoming impressed with the young man. "Well… if it would benefit the school, of course I'd want to hear more."

Kotomi smiled and took Kyou's arm as they walked behind Tomoya and the principal. Kyou had a feeling that Kotomi and Tomoya had conspired to do something and had left her out of the planning. She looked over at Kotomi and saw the shrewd smile on her friend's face and knew. _Kotomi, what have you done? What are you guys up to?_

.

 **Mon** **day** **even** **ing** **,** **June** **7** **–** **Ichinose residence**

* * *

Still bouncing from the excitement of the surprise that Tomoya and Kotomi had set up for her, Kyou was about to start picking up the dinner dishes when her phone ping. Glancing at it, she saw that it was a message from her sister. Her face lit up when she read the message.

"Is Ryou-chan available for you to call now?" Tomoya was smiling at the almost little-girl glee that he saw in Kyou at the moment.

"Um… yes." Kyou was torn between her family responsibilities and wanting to call Ryou to tell her the incredible news.

"Go ahead," Tomoya laughed, "I'll take care of the dishes."

"Are you sure?" Kyou took her family responsibilities seriously, but she was practically dancing with excitement to tell her little sister of the exciting new development.

"Yes!" Tomoya waved her off, "Now go make your call before you wet yourself!"

"Ah! You jerk!" Kyou threw the dish towel she was holding at his laughing face and left for the porch to make her call.

Before she was able to pull up her sister's number, the phone buzzed in her hand and she saw that she was getting a call from Ryou.

"Ryou! Ryou! Ryou! Ryou! Ryou!" Kyou chirped in her excitement, "You are not going to believe the good news!"

"What is it?" Ryou sounded as if she had caught some of her sister's excitement over the phone.

"I got a job offer today!" Ryou spilled out the details to her younger sister, "Tomoya was talking to the principal about an advanced studies program at the Elementary school that our boys will be going to and… well… one thing led to another and they offered me the job to head up this new program!"

"That's great, Onee-chan." Ryou sounded less than thrilled at Kyou's news.

Kyou felt a growing dread that something was wrong. It wasn't in anything that Ryou had said, but there was something in the way she was saying it that tipped her off. Kyou wondered if Nagisa's health problem had returned despite Kotomi's assurances that those problems were behind her. "What's wrong, Ryou?"

"Kotomi's boys." Kyou could hear the pain in Ryou's voice as she heard her sister's words. "You said our boys, but you meant Kotomi's boys. Right, Onee-chan?"

"Ryou, what do you mean?" Kyou said, "You know how I feel about the children."

"Onee-chan, our parents will be back at the house this weekend." Ryou explained, "They want to have dinner with you. They want to talk things out."

"Talk things out?" Kyou felt the growing dread beginning to suffocate her, "What is there to talk out? I got the degree they asked me to. I even got a Masters degree while I was there!"

"Onee-chan, please understand." Ryou sounded as if she was crying now, "They want one of us married and they want grandchildren. I told them that it would mean giving up on being a doctor if I were to do that… so, they aren't trying to push me into it any more. But, they don't see working in an elementary school as being all that important so…"

"I don't care what they think!" Kyou was furious, "It's important to me! Why are you on their side?"

"I'm not!" Ryou sobbed, "I was only supposed to tell you to go have dinner with them. I just wanted you to know what… what…"

"It's okay Ryou, I'm sorry for that." Kyou could hear her sister choking on her sobs, "I know you're on my side."

"Thank you, Onee-chan." Ryou was still crying but sounded a little better.

"So, they're really serious about this?" Kyou hoped that she would hear something encouraging from her little sister, but it was not to be.

"Onee-chan," Ryou was sobbing again, "They want you to move back home immediately. They have already hired a professional nakodo… they've already set up the first omiai."

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Nakodo – matchmaker

Obachan – grandmother

Obasan – aunt

Ojisan – uncle

Ojiisan – grandfather

Okasan – mother

Omiai – an arranged marriage brought about by a nakodo who arranges for two unattached individuals to meet for the purpose of marriage. Omiai may also be used to refer to the meeting where the unattached individuals meet each other.

Onee-chan – older sister

Onii-chan – older brother

Oto-san – father

.

* * *

 **Cast of Characters**

(so far)

.

At the point of the story that I put this together, the events are at the summer of 2010. It has now been at least six years since Kotomi and the other third years graduated from high school, and it has been more than four years since Tomoyo and the second years graduated. Because of this, some of the characteristics may vary from published canon resources since they represent statistics from many years ago. I am also including information for the children that have now appeared in the story.

.

 **Okazaki Tomoya**

Male 181cm 80kg Birthday: 08/30/85 Blue eyes Steel-Blue hair Age: 24

Married to Kotomi, Children: fraternal-twin boys Shuichi, Shuji, and little sister Mishiko. He is also close to, and protective of Fujibayashi Kyou.

.

 **Okazaki (Ichinose) Kotomi**  
Female 168cm 60kg Birthday: 05/13/85 Purple eyes Long Deep-Purple hair Age: 25  
Married to Tomoya. Girl genius with poor social skills who loves her children as well as Tomoya and Kyou. Since she grew up alone after her parents were tragically killed in a plane accident, she has a fear of her children growing up without parents like she did. Her children refer to her as Mama.

.

 **Fujibayashi Kyou**  
Female 167cm 57kg Birthday: 09/09/85 Purple eyes Long Lavender hair Age: 24  
In an unusual relationship with Tomoya and Kotomi. Kotomi sometimes refers to her as a Consort and has made her the Godmother for her children. Still powerful with a dictionary in her hand, she has learned to control her temper over the last half decade. The Okazaki children refer to her as Kyou-Mama.

.

 **Okazaki** **Shuichi** (original character)

Male 128cm 27kg Birthday: 05/10/04 Purple eyes Steel-Blue hair Age: 6

Elder of the twins, they are both big for their age and are both protective of their little sister.

.

 **Okazaki** **Shuji** (original character)

Male 125cm 27kg Birthday: 05/10/04 Blue eyes Dark Brown hair Age: 6

Younger of the twins, they are both big for their age and are both protective of their little sister.

.

 **Okazaki** **Michiko** (original character)

Female 113cm 20kg Birthday: 01/04/06 Blue eyes Long Deep-Purple hair Age: 4

Since she is a very shy girl, it surprised everyone when she seemed to take an immediate liking to Youhei and Yukine's son, Yoichi.

 **.**

 **Koumura Toshio (Ojiisan)** **  
**Male 162cm 56kg Birthday: 08/27/43 Gray eyes Gray hair Age: 66  
Originally hired by Kobayashi Jun to be the butler for Tomoya and Kotomi, he is now seen as a grandfather figure by the Okazaki children. Previously, he was the counselor at the high school and retired the same year that Tomoya and his peers graduated.

 **.**

 **K** **obayashi Jun  
** Male 180cm 77kg Birthday: 07/13/55 Gray eyes Salt&Pepper hair Age: 54  
Kotomi's godfather and former guardian. He is now assisting with Kotomi's practical research into the parallel universe theories laid down by Kotomi's parents.

.

 **Sunohara Youhei**  
Male 168cm 65kg Birthday: 02/17/86 Blue eyes Black hair Age: 24  
Having attended the Tokyo Police Academy, he is now a police officer but will soon be promoted to Detective. He is married to Yukine and has a son, Yoichi. Youhei was Tomoya's best friend in high school and has kept in touch with the friends he made during his last year there.

.

 **Sunohara (Miyazawa) Yukine**  
Female 159cm 49kg Birthday: 08/07/86 Blue eyes Long Light Brown hair Age: 23  
With a history of performing charms, spells, and predicting the future, Yukine can seem spooky to some people. She is a kind person who cares deeply for her friends. She has many friends that are (former?) gang members that she knew through her deceased brother – who was the gang leader.

.

 **Sunohara Yoichi** (original character)  
Male 99cm 14kg Birthday: 12/17/05 Blue eyes Brown hair Age: 4  
Although a month older than Okazaki Michiko, Yoichi is much smaller. This doesn't bother him and he enjoys playing with Michiko.

.

 **Furukawa Akio**  
Male 175cm 69kg Birthday: 07/20/62 Yellow eyes Red & Gray hair Age: 47  
Nagisa's father and the baker at the Furukawa Bakery. He likes to put on a gruff front, but he is kind and caring to friends and family. He dotes on his daughter Nagisa and considers her partner, Ryou to be another daughter in the family.

.

 **Furukawa Sanae**  
Female 158cm 51kg Birthday: 10/05/62 Brown eyes Long Light Brown hair Age: 47  
Nagisa's mother and a teacher at the local Middle School. Kind and wise, she has helped out most of Nagisa's friends at one time or another.

.

 **Furukawa Nagisa**  
Female 155cm 45kg Birthday: 12/24/84 Light Brown eyes Long Chestnut hair Age: 25  
The strange illness that plagued her childhood has not returned since the night of freezing that almost killed her and Tomoya. Having attended university with her partner Ryou, she is now working and trying to make a go in entertainment while Ryou finishes medical school.

.

 **Fujibayashi Ryou**  
Female 166cm 58kg Birthday: 09/09/85 Blue eyes Short Lavender hair Age: 24  
Kyou's almost identical twin sister is the girlfriend of Furukawa Nagisa. She is currently attending medical school.

.

 **Yoshino Yusuke**  
Male 179cm 63kg Birthday: 12/05/81 Blue eyes Deep-Purple hair Age: 29  
Formerly a rock musician, he is now working as an electrician. Married to Kouko, he has a daughter and a son.

.

 **Yoshino (Ibuki) Kouko**  
Female 161cm 52kg Birthday: 01/18/77 Light Brown eyes Brown hair Age: 33  
Married to Yusuke, she has returned to working as an art teacher at the high school. In addition to her husband and children, she also cares for the body of her little sister who has been in a coma for many years.

.

 **Yoshino** **Maiko** (original character)  
Female 108cm 16kg Birthday: 10/22/04 Blue eyes short Red-Brown hair Age: 5  
Maiko doesn't like having to watch her younger brother and thinks all the boys in her kindergarten class are stupid. As a rule, she doesn't much care for boys.

.

 **Yoshino** **Yasuo** (original character)  
Male 100cm 15kg Birthday: 05/03/06 Light Brown eyes Red-Brown hair Age: 4  
Yasuo calls his older sister big-meanie, but he loves his aunt Fuko.

.

 **Ibuki** **Fuko (ikiryo)**  
Female 150cm 43kg Birthday: 07/20/86 Brown eyes long Dark-Brown hair Age: 15  
This is the physical manifestation of the spirit of Kouko's sister that is lying in a coma. All of the children can see her and most of the adults can now see her without too much effort. It is more difficult for her ikiryo to bee seen when the observer knows of the real Fuko's condition. She has a kind, if scatterbrained personality. Her love of her older sister and of starfish is absolute. Other than Tomoya, she is the only one to have gone to, and returned from the Illusionary World. She remembers meeting Ushio there and still does not forgive Tomoya for not trying to save Ushio when the frozen Illusionary World was falling apart.  
.

 **Sakagami** **Tomoy** **o**  
Female 173cm 68kg Birthday: 10/18/86 Blue eyes long Powder-blond hair Age: 23  
Tomoyo was Tomoya's girlfriend for a short time in the last semester that Tomoya was in school. Since he left to America to go to college with his wife and Kyou, she went to university in Hokkaido and has returned to her hometown to take a job in civil service. Her goal is to one day be a politician that can make the town better for everyone.

.

 **Hiroki** (original character)  
Male 167cm 86kg Brown eyes & black hair early thirties  
Strong and silent type. Very loyal to his friends. Scary looking, gorilla like.

.

 **Isamu** (original character)  
Male 158cm 75kg Brown eyes & Salt & Pepper hair mid thirties  
One of the smartest men that work for The Boss. Although he is a team leader, he doesn't like being called a 'boss' himself. He is supremely pleased with himself when he has done a good job.

.

 **Iwao** (original character)  
Male 164cm 81kg Brown eyes & black hair early thirties  
Not to bright, but a good fighter and loyal to Isamu and to The Boss.

.

 **Ryota** (original character)  
Male 172cm 82kg Brown eyes & black hair late twenties  
Loyal to Isamu and keeps calling him 'boss'. He panics easily but is better at more technical work than most of the men that work for The Boss.

.

 **The Boss** (original character)  
has not been seen yet.  
motives unknown


	2. Chapter 2 - Six Years?

**Sunday evening, June 13 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

Upstairs in their room, Shuichi and Shuji were going through their school supplies that they would be taking with them in the morning. Even though they had been registered for a week, it had taken that long for the school to get everything ready for the 'special class' that Kyou would be teaching, so they had not yet had their first day of school. It hadn't exactly been free time for them though. Kyou insisted that they make use of the week to study Hiragana, Katakana, and calligraphy, as much as possible since those were their weak subjects. After a week of intense study, they were better than they had been, though still behind their age level in those abilities. That week was over now and they were looking forward to going to a school with Kyou-mama as their teacher.

Their little sister, Michiko was in her room with Koumura Toshio, or as she grew up knowing him, Ojiisan. Her eyes were drooping while she listened to the end of the Japanese folk tale that her Ojiisan was reading to her. Although she barely understood the words, she loved the sound of her Ojiisan's voice and let he sonorous tone carry her off to sleep with dreams of fox-eared children running through fields of flowers with her.

Downstairs, Sakagami Tomoyo was sitting next to Tomoya as they went over some legal paperwork and a blueprint map of the park across the street from the Furukawa Bakery. Kotomi was across the table going over several notebooks and typing things into a laptop computer. Hearing the creaking sound of heavy steps on the stairway, she looked up to see the old man coming down the stairs.

"Michiko-chan is fast asleep," Koumura reported, "the boys are in their beds but they are still too excited about tomorrow to get to sleep just yet."

"Thank you, Toshio-san," Kotomi smiled, "good work today."

"You won't be needing anything else tonight?" Koumura looked pointedly at the guest at the table next to Tomoya.

"We'll be up for a bit going over some paperwork and waiting for Kyou to return, but we'll manage if we need anything." Tomoya said reassuringly.

"You should get some sleep." Kotomi added, "Tomorrow will be a busy day for you."

"Oh?" Koumura seemed only a bit surprised. Having been a high school teacher and counselor for over three decades and a butler in this household for the last six years, the bar to surprise him was pretty high. "Well then, I'll be off. Goodnight." He bowed and turned to head off to the dojo that he was using is his temporary bedroom until the annex wing was completed.

"Koumura-san is getting old." Tomoyo observed after he had left the room.

"Oh?" Tomoya asked, "Are you suggesting that we should let him go?"

"I'm suggesting you should get him some help." Tomoyo rebuked Tomoya's question with an acerbic frown.

"I… I'm sorry, Tomoyo." Tomoya put his hand over his face and took a deep breath. "With all this… stuff going on with Kyou, I guess I'm just a little on edge."

"What is going on with Kyou?" Tomoyo asked. The ill feelings she had at Tomoya for the unkind insinuation a moment ago were gone when she realized he was truly upset about something. _Kyou has always been a bit of a loose cannon though. Has she finally gone too far and hurt the people that took her in as a family member?_

"Kyou is at her family's house now." Kotomi explained without emotion, "Apparently, they want her to leave us and get married now."

"What?" Tomoyo gasped, "That's barbaric! Do they think we're still living in the Meiji era?"

"Ha ha ha!" Tomoya couldn't help but laugh. After all, he had made about the same comment.

"What?" Tomoyo asked him accusingly.

"It looks like you are just as upset about this as we are." Tomoya remembered the rivalry between Kyou and Tomoyo from their high school days. "I never knew you and Kyou were such good friends."

"It… it's not that." Tomoyo explained, "I just think… that whole practice is an affront to women."

"I won't argue with you there," Tomoya said seriously, "at least in cases where the woman is dragged into it against her will. I have heard that it has been fairly useful as a matchmaking service for professional people in Japan though."

"Oh has it?" Tomoyo had not heard of that, but she hadn't been interested in any romantic involvement either.

"I believe Tomoyo-chan has a valid point." Kotomi said in support of the platinum blond. She had been thinking about all the variables and had come to an inescapable conclusion. An overwhelming number of understood data pointed to Tomoyo's assumption being the most correct model.

"We need to get rid of Koumura?" Tomoya teased his blond girlfriend.

"That's NOT what I said." Tomoyo said sternly, but without raising her voice.

"The arrangement of this house is not as efficient as the Houston residence, and is even less so with the annex. Even if we installed an elevator to reduce the stress of going up and down the stairs all day, it will still be more physically taxing to maintain this house." Kotomi further explained, "When you factor in the variables of the children getting older and the next child…"

"NEXT CHILD?" Tomoya and Tomoyo gaped at Kotomi.

"Of course." Kotomi looked at Tomoya with a little confusion, "Didn't I tell you that I wanted you to have at least two sons and two daughters?"

"That's a pretty big family by today's standards." Tomoyo raised an eyebrow at the still shocked Tomoya and commented, "Maybe we _are_ still in the Meiji era."

.

Tomoyo and Tomoya had finished the legal papers they had been working on and she had forgone the offer of staying for tea when her smart-phone warned of a band of heavy rain moving into the area. As the minutes ticked by and the time for the rain drew closer, they both became concerned for their missing family member.

"Tomoya-kun." Kotomi said without looking up from the last notebook she was reviewing.

"Kotomi-chan?" Tomoya responded as always. He had often wondered when they would stop this method of beginning a conversation, but Kotomi still insisted on it even after the children were born.

"Kyou-chan has been gone for some time now. I am concerned." Kotomi finally looked up when she asked, "Do you think she will be okay?"

"I'm sure she's perfectly safe." Tomoya sidestepped the real question. It wasn't the rain that either of them were truly concerned about. Kyou had gone to her parents house several hours ago for the dinner that her sister had warned her about and should have been back by now.

It would be the first time the Fujibayashi parents would have seen their eldest daughter in six years. It should have been a joyous reunion. There should have been congratulations from her parents for all of her academic achievements. But it was not to be.

From what Ryou had told her sister, this was to be a battle-royale of wills between Kyou and both of her parents.

.

Kyou walked along the dark road with unseeing eyes. It had started raining but she hadn't bothered to pull out her umbrella. The feel of the cool rain soaking through her clothes made them heavy as they stuck to her in some places and clammily slid across her skin in others. The cold discomfort matched her mood precisely. Rivulets of cool rain ran through her hair and down her face to mask warm tears that cascaded down her cheeks and dripped from her nose and chin.

"Why? Why did we have to return to Japan?" Kyou asked aloud. _Just when everything was going so well too. I got my degree's just like I promised. I got an offer to head up an advanced education program. I love the kids… and Kotomi and… Tomoya._ Kyou's feet trudged along the path back to the Ichinose house as the anger and frustration built within her. She wanted to destroy something in retribution for the devastation of everything she loved… everything she wanted for herself seemed to be fading away. She could not walk any further, her anger had reached the tipping point. Fists clenched in rage, she tilted her head back and screamed up to the unmerciful and gloomy heavens just as lightning flashed and thunder boomed overhead.

"Why? Dammit, why me? I've worked so hard… so hard." Anger became despair and the scream became sobs. She sank to her knees in the road while her now shivering body was wracked with mournful crying. With closed eyes, her voice cracked as she asked no-one in particular, "Why do I have to loose… everything?"

"Kyou?" a voice called out to her in the rainy gloom.

Even with the wind and rain distorting the voice, she could tell that it was Tomoya calling out to her. Kyou didn't answer at first. If he didn't see her now, she might have a few more minutes to herself to scream at the world for it's unfairness. A moment later, she knew she had been found though. Kyou could hear the splish splosh sounds of his footsteps getting closer.

"Kyou," Tomoya found her on her knees and leaning against the concrete block wall that ran down the alley next to the house. Except for the shuddering of her shoulders as she silently wept, she was an unmoving blur of black and white against the gray block wall. Only for a moment when the lightning flashed could he see the purple of her hair, her dark red dress, and tan of her skin. She didn't answer, but he could feel the hurt radiating from her like heat from a bonfire. Instead of trying to cajole her into motion, he folded up his umbrella and sat down next to her in the rain.

"Nooooo," Kyou whined when he pulled her over to lean on him, but her reproof didn't reflect her feelings… or her actions. In moments, her arms were wrapped around his shoulders and she was sobbing into his shirt. "It's so unfair… it's all so unfair."

"I take it, the meeting with your parents didn't go well?" Tomoya said sympathetically. He knew that this was an excellent opportunity to tease her, but the way she looked now – it wouldn't be funny, it would only be cruel.

"No," she said without looking up, "I'll be meeting with a Nakōdo on Wednesday and they are planning the first omiai meeting by the end of the month."

"That's… really quick." Tomoya thought they might have a couple of months to come up with something, but it looked like the Fujibayashi's were in a rush. Years of living with Kotomi had sharpened his mind and quirks like this made him wonder what was really going on. _Why are they in such a rush? It is now the middle of June and it looks like they want to make something happen within the next two or three months. Why? What happens in the mid-August to mid-September time frame? Summer vacation will be happening during that time._ _There is the Obon festival…_ _Do they have a family reunion? In September is Kyou and Ryou's birthday…_

"What?" Kyou looked up when she felt a change in Tomoya. He had tensed up as if he was suddenly startled about something.

"You'll be twenty-five on your next birthday." Tomoya said evenly.

"Um, yeah?" Kyou was a little thrilled that Tomoya remembered her birthday this year, but she wondered what it had to do with… _Twenty-five!_ "Oh no!"

"Yeah," Tomoya looked into her purple eyes and said, "I know it's pretty old-fashioned, but I think your parents want to get you married… or at least engaged, before you turn twenty-five years old."

Kyou knew he was right. According to her parent's generation, an unmarried girl over twenty-five was an old-maid. Since they also had a hard time recognizing Ryou's involvement with Nagisa as a serious relationship, they were having to come to grips with both of their daughters becoming old-maids because of their life choices. It didn't improve Kyou's situation any, but at least it gave her some insight into why her mother and father were suddenly so fired up about getting her or her sister married off.

"Something bugs me though," Tomoya wondered, "why are you doing it?"

"Huh?" Kyou didn't catch his meaning.

"Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with a mom, and my dad…" Tomoya let that trail off. He still had a difficult time talking candidly about his father, but he came back to the question, "I just don't see why you're listening to them. You're an adult now. You're not living at home. It's not like you owe them some great debt. If you don't like this, why are you going through with it at all?"

"You will probably think I'm nuts but…" Kyou sighed and said the key parts of her answer in a husky voice that was supposed to be an imitation of her father, "my family is pretty heavy with the whole _debts shall be paid_ , _promises must be kept_ , and one should always _remember your family obligation_."

"That's good to hear." a voice startled both of them and they looked up to see Kotomi standing a few meters away under an umbrella. "Kyou-chan, if that is what your father truly believes, then you have nothing to worry about."

"Huh?" both Tomoya and Kyou wondered how Kotomi had come to that conclusion.

"Now, both of you need to get inside and soak in the hot bath before you get sick." Kotomi said with concerned cheer.

As he stood up, Tomoya wondered why Kotomi did not seem bothered in the least by the demands that the Fujibayashi parents had put on Kyou. He had been worried that his socially inept wife would come unglued at even discussing the possibility of Kyou leaving. After helping her up and feeling her shivering body leaning into him, he knew that he was concerned. Kyou had become an integral part of their family and they depended on her as much as she depended on them. The boys had always been close to her and Tomoya could even see traces of her personality in them. Although little Michiko preferred the arms of her mother when she was tired, it was always Kyou that she sought out when she was frightened. Tomoya knew that it would be a very sad day if he suddenly had to explain to the children why they were losing one of their mothers. And that was how it would be explained too. From the moment they were born, Kotomi insisted that she fostered no selfishness or jealousy when it came to the children. Kyou was just as much their mother as she was, and that was how they had been raised. Tomoya held the lavender haired girl even closer as they got to the door. He could feel her body shivering from the cold and shaking from the tears that continued to fall.

"I…" Kyou started to say something but Tomoya put a finger over her lips. He knew that Kotomi had given her a little hope, but it was only a little and Kyou had to have been thinking the same kind of thoughts that he had.

"Don't think about it for a while." Tomoya told her, "Let's get warmed up and hear what Kotomi has to say."

"I'm afraid to hope too much." Kyou admitted, "I just don't know if Kotomi understands the Fujibayashi family dynamics enough."

"I get that," Tomoya gave Kyou a confident smile, "but she doesn't have to understand them completely. I'll admit that she's still not so good at figuring out what people are thinking or what they really want. But once she knows the rules… she is unstoppable."

"I… I hope you're right." Kyou sagged into him. The cold and the stress of the day had all but wiped her out. If it hadn't been for her desire to hear Kotomi enlighten her about the miracle revelation which would save her from the impending threat of an omiai, she would have preferred to just towel off, go to bed, and cry herself to sleep.

Tomoya knew that Kyou was still doubtful, but his earlier confidence had not been just a show. . _..she'll always be twelve moves ahead of you._ The advice from Kobayashi Jun had served Tomoya well over the years. Whenever he doubted Kotomi, he would remember the professor's advice and it had seldom ever gone wrong for him. _Knowing Kotomi, she is way more than twelve moves ahead. She's already won the game and put away the board. Honestly, I feel a little sorry for the Fujibayashi's._

.

Tomoya had washed Kyou's back and shampooed her hair. He hadn't planned to do the hair at first but she really enjoyed his fingers rubbing down to her scalp through her lathered locks. By the time he was combing the conditioner into the ends of her long mane, she was almost smiling. Almost, but a corner of her mind would remind her that this might be the last time she would enjoy this pleasure and the gloom would return. By the time Tomoya had her hair up and she was able to get into the large bath, she was back to being depressed and listless. Even with Tomoya holding her in his arms while they both soaked in the hot water of the bath, she was not able to enjoy it. The whole time she felt that torturous feeling of being on the edge of sadness where you were almost, but not quite ready to burst into tears.

"Kyou," Tomoya spoke softly. Since her head was resting on his shoulder, he knew she would hear every word even if he whispered. "How many times have you been caught by Kotomi's logic and heard me say, _checkmate_?"

"To many to count." Kyou huffed.

"Me too." Tomoya admitted, "and, not counting me saying _checkmate_ , how did it make you feel when you realized that she had won?"

"Baka." Kotomi answered, "I felt stupid since I usually lost because of something I already believed in. She would use my own thoughts, my own beliefs against me! And… she seemed to do it so effortlessly. Sometimes I was more ticked off at that, than I was at losing the argument."

"But she never delighted in it." Tomoya offered.

"Yeah, that bothers me too." Kyou gruffed, "Nobody should look that cute and apologetic when they are serving you up such a monumental defeat."

"So, for somebody as competitive as you… for someone who really doesn't like to lose – it must sting a lot." Tomoya observed.

"Eh? What are you trying to do? Cheer me up by being annoying?" Kyou challenged.

"No. I was just thinking about something your sister told me once." Tomoya explained, "She said you and your dad didn't get along because you were both so similar. Both of you are very competitive. Neither of you can stand to lose."

"So you _are_ trying to be annoying!" Kyou snapped at Tomoya as she struggled to get out of his arms.

"No, I told you I'm not." Tomoya said as he held onto her all the more firmly, "I was just thinking of how your dad is doing right now."

"Huh?" Kyou was taken by surprise at Tomoya's strange comment. "My dad? What about my dad?"

"Unless I'm mistaken, Kotomi is having a chat with him now." Tomoya closed his eyes and wondered how much longer it would take for the Fujibayashi patriarch to realize there was no way out from one of Kotomi's logic traps. He was a smart man, so it might go quickly, but he was also very emotional when it came to his family… so that might drag things out.

"No, we can't let her do that!" Kyou struggled again to get up, "She doesn't know what he's like. Tomoya, he'll chew her up and turn her into a sobbing wreck!" Kyou remembered back to the time that Kotomi saw the bus wreck and it disturbed her so much that she closed herself up in her house for days. She also remembered years of being steamrolled by her father's demands.

"Kyou…" Tomoya was about to ask her how she could have lived with Kotomi for so long now, and still not have faith in her. But, it occurred to him that Kyou had lived with her father much longer and old habits die hard. For all of her adolescent life, Kyou had gone to battle against her father to protect Ryou, as well as herself. Kyou had the thicker skin and more rugged personality and could survive an argument with their father that would completely demoralize someone as delicate as Ryou. He was about to explain to Kyou that her protection of Kotomi was unnecessary when the bathroom door opened.

"Kotomi-chan!" Tomoya called out as both he and Kyou were rushing to climb out of the bath and get to her. She didn't look well. Her face was pale and she looked as if she might topple over at any moment. _It's okay!_ Tomoya told himself, _Kotomi sometimes looks like this even when she wins. It's the act of confrontation that wears her out, whether she wins or loses._ Even considering the possibility that Kotomi might have lost was seriously fracturing Tomoya's sense of reality.

"Tomoya… kun." Kotomi answered just as he got to her and she collapsed into his arms. With Tomoya holding her, she was starting to feel better already. Opening her eyes, she could see Kyou next to her looking very concerned. "Kyou-chan, I need… I need a bath."

"I should say so, you're covered in sweat!" Kyou started taking Kotomi's clothes off while Tomoya kept her from falling down. "What happened, did you suddenly decide to run a marathon?"

"I talked with your father." Kotomi lifted one leg and then the other to step out of her skirt and panties that Kyou had pulled down her legs. "He loves you very much."

"Hmph." Kyou was still too upset to be thinking positive things about either her mother or father at the moment.

"Were you able to convince him?" Tomoya asked. He wanted to say _Did you win?_ But he knew that Kotomi didn't like to look at a debate as a win/lose contest. She preferred an outcome where one side was swayed by the incontrovertible proof presented to them.

"Hmmm," Kotomi moaned an affirmative sound as Tomoya sat her on the shower stool. She didn't talk for a while. Kotomi was able to let the stress of the confrontational experience melt away as she relaxed in Tomoya's arms. He held her firmly by the shoulders as Kyou reached for a gentle loofah and the bottle of soft soap and got to work on Kotomi's neck and chest.

"Hmmmmm." Kotomi moaned at the luxurious feel of being gently washed.

"Is that nice?" Tomoya asked his now smiling wife.

"Oh yes," Kotomi purred, "Kyou-chan's hands are like magic on me."

"Ah!" Kyou hid her face as she blushed hard at Kotomi's odd choice of words, "I'm using a loofah!"

"Of course you are." Tomoya teased and intentionally kissed his wife when Kyou had begun scrubbing Kotomi between the waist and the knees.

When Kyou looked up to rebut Tomoya's blatant insinuation, she saw them kissing and jerked her head back down as her blush only intensified. _How can they? How can they be so carefree when this could be the last time… the last bath. Everything I do with them now… will it be the last time? Surely they wouldn't be so relaxed if they knew that I'll have to leave soon? NO! They wouldn't… they are not like that! They both believe. Both of them honestly believe that Kotomi can pull something off but they don't know my dad like I do. Why? Why can't I believe in Kotomi_ _this time_ _?_

With her body now clean, Kotomi leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Kyou while Tomoya shampooed and conditioned her long purple tresses. Despite having been re-energized by Kyou's hands and Tomoya's kisses, Kotomi almost fell asleep as she lay her head on Kyou's shoulder.

After they were finished washing Kotomi, Tomoya carried her into the bath and the three of them were finally able to relax together. After a few minutes, Kotomi felt that she had the energy to talk again. She didn't want to of course. It had already been a long day and a confrontation with another person alone, was enough to tire her out completely. She would have preferred to trail off to sleep in her comfortable bed, but…

"Please, Kotomi-chan…" Kyou looked like she might burst if she didn't soon find out what happened between Kotomi and her father.

"You talked him out of it, right?" Tomoya sounded hopeful, "Kyou doesn't have to leave any more?"

"Not quite," Kotomi told them, "I got an extension. The Wednesday meeting with the Nakōdo is off."

"That just means I have more time with you, but I will still have to leave!" Kyou's hands went to her face to cover the tears that she had been holding back.

"No, Kyou-chan." Kotomi caressed Kyou's head, "It means we have more time to find a more permanent solution."

"How much?" Tomoya asked.

"How much… what?" Kotomi asked Tomoya to clarify his question.

"How much of an extension did you get? How much more time do we have?" Tomoya asked the question that both he and Kyou wanted to know but at the same time were afraid to find out.

Tomoya and Kyou looked at each other and realized they were both thinking the same thing. _If this reprieve is just a week or two, that time would do nothing but drag out the pain of the impending separation. If Kotomi was able to arrange for a month or two, perhaps we can find a more permanent solution. But that was a lot to ask for when…_

"Six years." Kotomi said.

"EH?" both Tomoya and Kyou gaped.

"Kyou-chan has six years with us before she has to satisfy her parents requirements for marriage." Kotomi explained.

"WHAAAAAAT!"

.

 **Monday morning, June 14 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

"Good morning class." Kyou said to the room full of students. There were only twelve students and they ranged everywhere from Kindergarten to fifth grade with most of them being from first and second grade. Aside from the dozen students, there was also a young teaching assistant to monitor the class. Kyou knew that she was also here to observe and report to the principal on just what this 'special' class was up to. Kyou didn't mind though, it was never her plan to make a career of this anyway. Her goals had become somewhat loftier since she went abroad for her education. No longer satisfied with being a Kindergarten teacher, she was now setting her sights on running her own school. _Making this class work will be the first step toward achieving that goal._

Kyou looked at each of the students before her and smiled. Not all of them were smiling back. Kyou smiled to herself because she knew something these kids didn't know. Each of them had been hand picked by her and all of them were considered marginal performers by their former homeroom teachers. They knew they didn't have good grades and most of them were probably thinking that they had been kicked out of their original classes to some kind of slow learner class with other troubled kids.

"My name is Fujibayashi Kyou but you can call me Kyou-sensei since I will be your teacher." Kyou saw two of the older kids raise their hands almost immediately and said, "Allow me to finish the introduction and I will be willing to answer all of your questions." After the hands went down she smiled and continued, "First of all, I want to tell you that you are all here because I reviewed your folders and selected you for this program. Each of you has one or more subjects that you are not doing so well in, but I firmly believe that all you need to succeed is a little extra help to get you back on your feet or, in many cases, you are not doing well in a subject because it is boring."

There were a couple of gasps in the classroom and one of them was from the teaching assistant. Criticizing the subject or a teacher was forbidden, especially among the teachers. The teaching assistant's mouth was hanging open at this perceived faux pas.

"Don't get me wrong," Kyou went on, "I don't think there is anything wrong with the courses or with your teachers. However, after reviewing your academic records, I believe that each of you are actually so good in the subjects you are doing poorly in, that you are bored with the material as it is presented. Boredom creates inattention and a lack of attention spells disaster in academics. In this class, you will be challenged to learn the material as fast as your brains can absorb it. I fully expect that, before the end of this year, you will all be doing spectacularly in your most troublesome subjects. Now, are there any questions?" Again, the two oldest students raised their hands but she noticed that the teaching assistant also had her hand up.

"How do we know that this isn't just some dummies class that the school threw together to get rid of us?" the fifth grade boy asked before Kyou had a chance to call on anyone.

"Nakajima Huyu." Kyou said while looking into the ten year olds eyes, "Nakajima meaning _middle island_ and Huyu meaning _winter_. Appropriately named since you were born on one of the Ryu islands between Kyushu and Okinawa in January. You do well in language arts and science classes but poorly in math. This is remarkable since your math scores were some of the best in your class, until third grade when your grades suddenly started going down. We're going to go back over what you learned in third grade and find out if it was a hurdle, or if you just got bored. And once we overcome that obstacle, you are going to go back to being remarkable."

"Y… y… yes sensei!" the scared looking boy bowed.

From the tone of his answer, Kyou could tell that he was also contrite about his behavior as well. As Kyou looked around the room, she could see that most of the other students in the classroom looked worried or even outright scared. Even the teaching assistant looked scared. The only two kids in the room that weren't disturbed were Shuichi and Shuji. They both had their hands over their faces in mild embarrassment the way they always did whenever Kyou-mama seemed to be slipping into Demonic Dark-Aura Kyou mode.

"Urk!" Kyou realized that she had let her zeal for this class go a little too far. _Rein it in girl, you can do this. The boys are giving me the warning look, not the now you've blown it look._ Kyou took a deep breath and smiled again as she asked, "Any more questions?"

There were no more questions.

.

* * *

.

 **Glossary**

 **Meiji Era:** 1868 – 1912. Most commonly known as the time-frame when Japan emerged from isolationism. Even though Japan was rapidly modernizing during this time, omiai by Nakōdo were still common.

 **Nakōdo:** matchmaker. Could be a person or a service (company). Not a dating service, they specialize in finding compatible people for omiai.

 **Omiai:** arranged marriage. Although not as common as it was historically, a 2005 survey found that over 6% of all marriages in Japan were via omiai.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Experiments Begin

**Monday morning, June 14 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

Kyou had already left for her school with Shuichi and Shuji. Kotomi was still getting dressed upstairs, and Koumura was finishing up several lunch boxes in the kitchen when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Tomoya called out as he left his lounger chair in the living room and headed for the front door. It was pretty early and he wondered who could be calling. His face changed to a smile when he opened the door and saw a police officer with two small boys on his front step.

"Ah, Okazaki!" Sunohara Youhei was dressed in his police officer uniform and holding the reddish brown haired Yoshino Yasuo in his arms as the little boy slept. His own son, the blue eyed and brown haired Yoichi was holding onto his father's pant leg and smiling up at the tall Tomoya. Peeking out from behind Youhei were the timid brown eyes of Fuko.

"Youhei," Tomoya asked in a bit of surprise, "what are you doing with Kouko's son?"

"Let me explain…" Youhei took a deep breath but Tomoya cut him off.

"Make it quick. I'm on a schedule." Tomoya said while looking at the time on his cell phone.

"Quick, right…" Youhei explained, "I was supposed to have the day off and Yasuo was over to play with Yoichi."

"But…" Tomoya prompted.

"But, I got called in to work." Youhei said.

"Where is Yukine-chan?" Tomoya asked about Youhei's wife.

"She is working at the Furukawa Bakery this morning." Youhei explained, "she might be working there every morning this week."

"Wow, that really sounds like a problem." Tomoya said as he started to close the door in Youhei's face, "Well, see ya later."

"Okazakiiiiiiii!" Youhei cried out as he watched the door closing.

"Hey weird guy," Fuko shouted, "don't be mean to Youhei-kun!"

"Jeez, if you're gonna make all that noise, you might as well come in." Tomoya huffed as he opened the door for his old friend, the two children, and the fuming ikiryo.

"Thanks… jerk." Youhei said as he walked into the house.

"Hmm?" Tomoya noticed that the sparkling blue eyed Yoichi was still standing on the step. The tall man knelt down until he could see eye with the four year old boy and asked him, "I suppose you want to go wake up Michiko-chan?"

"Yes." little Yoichi answered simply but the smile that spread on his face could have warmed the hearts of the dead.

"Go ahead," Tomoya winked, "you have my permission."

Instead of immediately running off, the smiling tyke threw his arms around Tomoya's neck and gave him a thank you hug of surprising intensity. Several moments after the hug had ended and Yoichi had run inside the house, Tomoya was still kneeling in the doorway and wondering what kind of future was in store for a boy with that much charm.

"Tomoya-kun?" Kotomi's voice stirred him out of his reverie and he stood up. He discovered that his wife was loaded with a purse, two briefcases, and the picnic basket of lunches that Koumura had made.

"Kotomi-chan?" Tomoya made the automatic response as he took the picnic basket and one of the briefcases from her.

"We must hurry now or I will be late for the morning briefing to the technical crews." Kotomi was already walking toward the gate where a car was waiting for them.

For a moment he thought about begging off with the excuse that he should be there to take care of the children, but he heard Koumura's voice from inside the house and he knew the old man could take care of this much. Besides, from what Youhei had told him, there was another reason he should be tagging along this morning.

.

 **Monday morning, June 14 – Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

"Good morning, Okazaki-san." Yukine's clear voice rang out from behind a display of small loaves of something that looked like cinnamon and raisin bread.

"Good morning…" _Sunohara Yukine._ Tomoya had to remind himself. _Even though they've been married five years, when I look at her I still see Miyazawa Yukine, the kind_ _and helpful_ _girl in the resource room. Not only is she married now, she is the mother of the_ _charming_ _little boy that my daughter is so fond of. Waitminute… what did she just call me?_

"Okazaki-san?" Tomoya was suddenly confused, "Yukine-chan, do you not like me any more for some reason?"

"No," Yukine smiled and replied, "but I am working here now so I should address you properly."

"Oh?" Tomoya almost laughed, "Do you know how the old man would address me when he was running this shop?"

"Um, no." Yukine answered.

"He called me ' _hey brat_ ' and then he'd offer me some of Sanae-san's bread, but warn me that it couldn't be served to war prisoners because it would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions. But I still come around, so I think you could call me Tomoya-kun like you usually do." Tomoya urged her.

"Okay, Tomoya-kun. If you insist." Yukine laughed. "What brings you here today?"

"First of all, did Youhei tell you that he got called in to work?" Tomoya knew that his old friend who had been an irresponsible delinquent in high school had cleaned up his act significantly, but it wouldn't be unlike him to forget to message his wife about something like that if he was under a lot of stress.

"Um… no." Yukine walked over to the counter and pulled her cell phone out of the drawer to check for any messages she might have missed.

"Don't worry." Tomoya comforted her, "Yoichi is with Yasuo and Fuko at my house. Koumura-san is watching over them."

"Thank you very much, Tomoya-kun. But you didn't have to come all the way here to tell me that." Yukine said expectantly. She could tell that there was some other reason for this visit. From the sounds of the workers setting up the equipment in the street near the bakery, she guessed it had something to do with his wife's work.

"I'm here with Kotomi-chan, actually." Tomoya told her, "She's across the street at the park getting set up for some kind of experiment. I can't really help with that, so I thought I'd drop in and say hi."

"Well, Sanae-san has already left for the Middle School where she is teaching, and Akio-san isn't back from his audition in Tokyo yet." Yukine then offered, "But you can talk to me, if you'd like."

"Oh?" referring to Yukine's comment about the Tokyo trip, Tomoya asked, "I thought the audition was two days ago."

"That was for a stage performance." Yukine confirmed, "But after that audition, Akio-san was approached by a talent scout looking for actors to play parts in a new television medical drama. The audition for that show will be happening this afternoon, so he decided to stay in Tokyo."

"I hope he makes it." Tomoya remembered the almost aborted school play when Nagisa froze up on stage, and how the old man's dramatic entrance at the back of the auditorium gave Nagisa the courage to go on with the show. "He's always enjoyed acting. I hope he can catch his dream now."

"That's very kind of you, Tomoya-kun." Yukine smiled, "I hope he can too."

"Uh… thanks." Tomoya blushed a bit at Yukine's praise. "But, I guess I really did come here to talk to you after all."

"Oh?" Yukine sounded only mildly surprised since she had already figured out that he was here to see her. She was briefly worried that something had gone wrong with the construction of the annex that _her boys_ were building onto the Ichinose house. But her fear was dismissed when she saw that Tomoya's expression was more thoughtful than upset.

"I don't know all the details of what this is really all about, so I won't be able to answer any specific questions you might ask. And, everything we talk about should be considered confidential." Tomoya cautioned Yukine.

"Tomoya-kun, you sound like a lawyer." Yukine observed.

"I am a lawyer." Tomoya countered.

"And I am your friend." Yukine reminded him. Then she gave him some relationship advice, "When a friend talks to a friend like a lawyer, they're probably not friends any more."

"Good point." Tomoya used to be shocked at Yukine's little nuggets of wisdom but not any more. Anyone who could be an anchor of common sense capable of keeping Youhei from spinning out of control, had to be _full_ of insight and wisdom. Deciding to take her advice, Tomoya decided to just get to the point and tell her what he needed. "Kotomi needs a team of four guys for a special project. This isn't construction, but it isn't illegal either. They will need to be able to blend into the background and not stand out, but they'll need to have enough people skills to be able to ask strangers some simple questions without raising any suspicions. They should have the sense to be observant and be able to avoid getting into any trouble, but they should also be able to handle themselves in a fight if it comes to it."

"Interesting." Yukine responded simply but her eyes were alight and Tomoya could tell that she was excited about whatever it was that Tomoya and Kotomi were getting involved with. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, but this is kind of morbid." Tomoya told her, "They shouldn't have anyone that they are responsible for – like kids or siblings… in the event that they never come back."

"What?" Yukine was still interested in whatever this was, but that last part did alarm her, "Tomoya-kun, what in the world are you getting yourself into?"

"I honestly don't know." Tomoya looked down. He had asked Kotomi the same question but the answer had quickly escalated into principles of physics that he clearly didn't understand.

"I see." Yukine thought about what he had asked of her while watching him. Although he was doing his best to help his wife, he was obviously having a hard time with this. "Tomoya-kun, I know I just asked you not to talk to me like a lawyer, but let me ask you something… as a lawyer."

"Okay." Tomoya readied himself to once again tell her that he really didn't know what this was all about.

"Tomoya-kun, considering what you are asking, do you think that I should help at all – without knowing what is going on?" Yukine asked.

"No… no you shouldn't." Tomoya realized that he had made a fundamental mistake, "Considering what is being asked, no-one should participate without being fully informed."

"That would apply to you too," Yukine watched Tomoya lower his head in discouragement, "Isn't that right, Tomoya-kun?"

"Actually, it should apply to me more than anyone." Tomoya admitted. _I was blind since I was trying to help my wife, but that is no excuse!_

"Then give Kotomi-chan this message for me," Yukine told him, "I do know of several people that could fit the description that you have given me. But I will not help until she is able to give me a complete description of the job in language that I can understand."

"Really?" Tomoya was astounded that Yukine was willing to help with full disclosure being her only requirement.

"Yes," Yukine insisted, "but it must be presented in a way that I will understand it and… I think Tomoya-kun should be there too."

"Yes," Tomoya was absolutely going to be there! "Thank you very much Yukine-chan! I'll tell Kotomi-chan and get back to you soon." Tomoya turned to walk out of the bakery.

"Just a moment, Tomoya-kun." Yukine suggested, "We have these banana-raisin-cinnamon mini-loafs that are good as snack breads for Kotomi-chan and the people she has working on her experiment out there."

"Banana-raisin-cinnamon mini-loafs?" It sounded weird and Tomoya's eyes automatically wandered to the curtain that separated the bakery from the living area. _I wonder if Sanae…_

"I made these." Yukine said with her serene smile.

"I'll take a dozen." Tomoya replied without hesitation.

.

Other than the Furukawa Bakery across the street from the small neighborhood park, it was almost entirely a residential area. There was a flower shop located on the street on the far side of the park, but it was a small business run out of a home and had no storefront. Because of this, there were very few cars parked on the street by mid morning and there were no children about since school was in session. That is not to say that there was no-one there.

Four flat-bed trucks were parked along the streets that bordered the park. Although they could not see each other because of bushes, trees, and small buildings, they were precisely parked opposite of each other and their cargo beds were stabilized with telescoping struts that extended to the street. Some machinery seemed to be on the beds of these trucks, but they were covered with tarpaulins while everything was being set up. Some technicians and scientists wearing lab coats were checking things under the tarpaulin covers while others were carrying instruments and seemed to be taking readings or entering information into tablets as they walked through the park. Of course, this attracted some attention.

There were housewives and mothers pushing baby carriages as they were out for a stroll or to make a run to the market. Some shift workers out for a morning run and the occasional delivery drivers would also happen to be in the area. Before long, there were a number of people looking on and wondering what was going on with _their_ park.

"Is there a gas leak?"

"Is this a crime scene?"

"Are they making a movie here?"

"Is someone going to tear down the park and put up a building?"

"Are they doing something dangerous?"

"Who said they could do this here? Do they have permission for this?"

Quietly munching on one of the banana-raisin-cinnamon mini-loafs, Tomoya stood back and listened to the crowd for several minutes before deciding which action to take. Pulling out his cell phone he called the bakery he had just left. He knew that Yukine was running the store alone, but she was the only solution he could think of at the moment.

"Furukawa Bakery, good morning." Yukine's cheery voice greeted him.

"Yukine-chan," Tomoya asked, "how many of those mini-loafs do you have left?"

"Oh, did your crew really like them?" Yukine sounded pleased.

"I haven't given them out yet but it looks like I may need them for something else." Tomoya was growing concerned at the number of onlookers and the comments they were making.

"What's wrong, Tomoya-kun?" Yukine had picked up on his anxiety.

"We hadn't thought of crowd control." Tomoya said simply, "and it looks like I should do something before things get out of hand."

.

Tomoya was just coming back from the bakery when he saw that most of the crowd was gathered around one person that he couldn't see. For a moment he was worried that they had surrounded Kotomi with their questions but he heard a very firm response to someone's question and he recognized the voice instantly.

"A proper petition was filed at the courthouse. They have permission for the use of this park at this time. All safety concerns were answered before the permission was granted." Tomoyo looked very professional in her business suit, but she also sounded like she was about to strangle someone.

After listening to the exchange for another minute, Tomoya got the distinct impression that she had answered the same question too many times and was approaching the limit of her patience. If it had been Youhei in the middle of all this, he would have been tempted to watch for a while longer to see just how far that limit was. But, he wouldn't do that to Tomoyo. Smiling his best, he waded into the fray and made his way to the middle where he could stand next to Tomoyo and help her answer the myriad questions of the curious.

.

Two hours later, Tomoya and Tomoyo were finally able to take a break and enjoy one of Yukine's banana-raisin-cinnamon mini-loafs. There hadn't really been that many questions… or rather – there hadn't been that many different questions. But, like the platinum blond city-hall representative, Tomoya had found himself answering the same question over and over.

Tomoya didn't feel that the neighborhood was truly satisfied. Most of the reason for the crowd dissipating had to do with time and temperature. It was time for lunch, it was getting hot, and those that had accepted the gift of the mini-loafs wandered off in search of a drink to wash down the bread.

"How did you get roped into this?" Tomoya asked Tomoyo once they could talk privately.

"I was the one that championed this for Kotomi, so when the phones started ringing… they sent me." Tomoyo sighed. She didn't mind that much. It was nice to get out of the stuffy office where her desk was. If it hadn't been for all the annoying people that asked the same question a dozen different ways, it would have been a nice outing.

"Well, I'm glad you were here." Tomoya admitted.

"Thanks Tomoya." Tomoyo took a deep breath to still herself. Just hearing Tomoya say that much had stirred her heart. "Do you know how much longer they…"

Tomoyo's words were drowned out by a low frequency hum that seemed to come from everywhere. At first it sounded like an obnoxious car stereo system with far too much subwoofer, but there was no beat. The sound was constant for several minutes and suddenly stopped. When it finally ended, both Tomoya and Tomoyo felt as if an oppressive weight had been lifted from them.

"If Kotomi's tests are going to do that every time, I'll have to cancel the permission." Tomoyo warned. Before Tomoya could reply she told him, "One of the stipulations was that her tests and experiments would do nothing to disturb the peace."

"I…" Tomoya wanted to argue that it wasn't something so bad as disturbing the peace, but he couldn't. The noise alone had been oppressive, but the feeling of being held down as if covered with a sandbag blanket was too much. "I agree. I'll talk to Kotomi about it tonight."

.

 **Monday evening, June 14 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

Kyou was gathering her things up to leave when her cell phone rang. She thought about sending the call to voice mail so she could concentrate on packing up and leaving but noticed that the call was from Nagisa. _Did something happen to Ryou?_

"Hello… Nagisa?" Kyou answered her phone while sitting back down at her desk.

"No, it's Ryou." her sister answered sounding a little concerned. "I'm sorry I didn't call you back until now, Onee-chan."

"It's okay. I guess Medical School takes up a lot of your time, huh?" Kyou knew her sister was a diligent student and had every faith in her ability to become a fine doctor.

"It really does. Sometimes I feel like I come home late and sleep just so I can wake up and go back to school. It's supposed to be like this until the end of the year and then get a little better." Ryou would be studying right through the summer break so it was the break at the end of the year that she was anticipating.

"That sounds rough." Kyou said sympathetically.

"Yeah. If I didn't have Nagisa here to take care of me, I don't think I'd make it." Ryou's voice went from sweet, while she was talking about Nagisa, back to concerned when she asked, "So… how did everything go with… our parents?"

"Horribly." Kyou knew this question would be coming and she had an idea how her sister might respond. "They wanted me to move home immediately, just like you thought. The had already set up an Nakōdo and an omiai."

"Were you able to talk your way out of it?" Ryou asked.

"No, but Kotomi did." Kyou had a bittersweet smile at the memory of the moment when Kotomi told her what she had arranged.

"Kotomi-chan? How did she do that?" Ryou was amazed.

"She used his own sense of obligation against him." Kyou still wished she could have seen her father's face when he realized that he was going to lose the argument with the girl genius. "She reminded him that her trust had paid for me to live abroad and go to a University for six years… so she demanded six years as repayment."

"Hah… yeah… well that would do it." Ryou knew how much importance her father put in repaying your debts and fulfilling your obligations. Kotomi could not have had hit her father in a more vulnerable spot.

"Yeah." Kyou could hear the undertone in her sister's voice. _You don't really sound all that happy for me, little sister._ "Ryou, are you okay?"

"Oh… I was just thinking." Ryou knew it was terrible of her to think this way but she couldn't repress the fears, "You know that our parents paid for me to go to College and are paying for me to go to Medical School too, right?"

"Yeah?" Kyou answered.

"So that means… after I graduate…" Ryou started crying when she thought about what she knew would happen now that their parents plans to marry off Kyou had failed.

"What?" Kyou could hear her sister crying but hadn't put everything together yet and didn't see the danger to Ryou yet. "Ryou! What's the matter?"

"Obligation is important to daddy." Ryou spelled it out for her older sister, "So, after I graduate, in two years, he's going to use the same logic that Kotomi-chan used on him… on me."

"Ah!" Kyou cried out when she made the connection.

"They will ask me to leave Nagisa and get married to fulfill my obligation and repay my debt to the family." Ryou finished spelling it out.

"No!" Kyou tried to comfort her sister through the phone, "I won't let that happen, Ryou! We'll figure something out. I promise, we'll figure something out!"

"What can you do, Onee-chan?" Ryou tried to hold back her tears while she told her sister of the only conclusion she could imagine. "One way or the other, one of us is going to have to give up on the one we love. One of us is going to have to be… heartbroken… so the other can be happy."

"Ryou!" Kyou called out to her despairing sister. She felt the physical distance between them more now than she did the whole time she was in America. She wanted to hug her sister and let her know that everything would be okay… even if she didn't believe it herself.

"I… I have to go. Nagisa is home now and I don't want her to see me crying." Ryou hung up the phone.

"Ryou…" Kyou was at a loss. She had not even considered that her success could be her sister's doom. _But… there has to be a way! I won't let him do that to Ryou… even if I have to… to sacrifice…_

"Kyou-mama?" Shuichi and Shuji stood in the doorway to the teacher's common office. They were packed up and ready to leave with Kyou to go home. They both looked concerned.

"It's okay boys." Kyou brushed it off as she rose and continued packing up, "I'll be ready to go in a minute." She was concentrating on gathering her things and trying not to cry when she suddenly felt their warm bodies pressed up against her and their arms wrapped around her waist.

"We love you, Kyou-mama." Shuji said.

"We don't want you to be sad." Shuichi added.

"Oh!" Kyou went down on her knees to properly hug both of the boys back, "I love you too! Oh, I love you boys sooooo much!"

"And Michiko too?" Shuji asked about their sister.

"Yes," Kyou choked back her tears, "and Michiko too!"

.

 **Saturday afternoon** **, June 1** **9** **–** **Ichinose residence**

* * *

Kouko and her younger sister Fuko were in the dojo watching over all of the young children. Or, more accurately, Kouko – the high school art teacher – was in the dojo watching over all the young children as well as the ikiryo of her little sister, who tended to act very childlike herself. The Okazaki daughter Michiko, the Sunohara son Yoichi, and her own son Yasuo were all on a mat where they were working together on a large coloring book. All three of the kids were four years old, and would likely be going to the same Kindergarten the next school year. Well, technically her son was born a month too late to be in the same Kindergarten class with his friends, but Kouko knew that it was possible to get exceptions if the child tested well. Now that there were other kids around for Yasuo to play with, he wasn't getting picked on nearly as much by his older sister and Kouko had been thrilled with the developmental strides he had been making. Watching how well they all played together, Kouko sincerely hoped they did end up in school with each other.

The rambunctious ones were the Okazaki boys Shuichi and Shuji, her daughter Maiko, and… of course Fuko. As usual, Fuko was dressed in her Hikarizaka High School winter uniform with her long hair finished in a bright blue bow.

"What are you doing?" Maiko cried out at the two boys sitting around the small table and working on their homework. "I came here to play! Why aren't you playing?"

"We can't play until we're done with our homework." Shuji explained patiently without looking up from his calligraphy.

"Homework!" Maiko shrieked, "You're in Kindergarten, why do you have homework? Are you dummies?"

"Maiko!" Kouko said in a disappointed tone. She didn't have to say any more. From the tone alone, her daughter knew that she had gone too far… again.

"I'm sorry for calling you dummies." Maiko apologized grudgingly.

"We're not in Kindergarten." Shuichi had looked up when Maiko apologized.

"We finished Kindergarten a long time ago." Shuji told the stunned girl without looking up.

"What?" Maiko asked in disbelief, "But we're the same age! I'm in Kindergarten! Why aren't you in Kindergarten too?"

"Maiko-chan," Kouko said patiently, "They went to a different kind of school in a different place, that runs on a different schedule. Their mother told me that they are really good at math, science, and English, but not so good at Japanese language and history. So, their teacher gave them homework that they need to finish before they can play."

Kouko didn't bother mentioning that the mother and the teacher she had mentioned were the same person. Maiko had already made it quite clear that when she got to Middle School, she didn't ever want to be in a class taught by _her_ mother because it would be too embarrassing.

"Ha!" Maiko exclaimed triumphantly with her hands on her hips, "So I'm better than them at writing and stuff, right?"

"Sure," Shuji answered as he used the table to spread out the calligraphy sheets he had been working on, "You can do at least this much, right?"

Maiko, Fuko, and Kouko looked at all the carefully formed Hiragana and Katakana characters that Shuji had completed. Kouko picked one up to look at it more closely. Although he needed a lot of work on his brush stroke technique, she could easily tell that Shuji had a firm grasp on the basics. She knew that her daughter had more elegant brush strokes, but she had only covered a handful of the the easier characters.

Maiko looked pleadingly at her mother. She was proud of being one of the best students in her Kindergarten, but she knew that she didn't know most of the characters that the boys were working on. Inside her head, little Maiko was screaming that this was all so impossible and unfair. _No! They're just stupid boys! Stupid boys! Stupid boys! I'm supposed to be smarter than any stupid boys that are younger than me or even the same age as me._ Maiko picked up a page and looked at a symbol she couldn't recognize. The lines were thin where they shouldn't be, looked as if they had been scrawled on the page, and were splotchy… but it was recognizable.

"I'll tell you what," Kouko suggested, "why don't you sit down with the boys and you three can teach other."

"Huh?" all three of the children gaped.

"Maiko-chan can show you boys how to do better brush work." Kouko told the boys, "She is very good at that."

After getting such praise from her mother, Maiko was about to gloat about being superior to these mere boys. But, before she could say a word, her mother had more to say.

"And the boys can teach you about the characters that you haven't learned yet." Kouko told her daughter.

"Yes." all three of the children reluctantly agreed. The boys scooted over to give Maiko a seat at the table with them.

Kouko was distracted from watching the amazing sight of her daughter actually playing civilly with boys her own age. Of course, the distraction was Fuko-chan. Kouko almost laughed when she saw the longing look on her short sibling's face as Fuko watched the younger children over at the large coloring book.

Fuko could be thought of as being a twenty-three year old woman if you measured out the years since her birthday. She could also be thought of as a fifteen year old adolescent girl since that was her age when the ikiryo was created at the time of the accident that put her into the coma. In either case, the more difficult calligraphy lesson at the table was certainly a more appropriate activity for Fuko than a coloring book. But, in many respects, Fuko was still a little girl.

"Fu-chan." Kouko offered, "Would you watch over the small children while I watch the older kids?

"Ah!" Fuko realized she had been found out and was about to bluster that she was a big girl and perfectly capable of watching the big kids herself.

"I know Yasuo would appreciate it if his favorite Obasan was helping him." Kouko added. _Surely, she's not going to fall for this trick again._

"Fuko will watch over Yasuo and his friends." Fuko proclaimed as she marched over to the mat and flopped down to take her place next to her little nephew. In no time at all, she was happily coloring with him on the floor.

Kouko sometimes worried about what the future might hold for those two. Anyone could see how very special and very strong the bond was between them. But Kouko was concerned about what would happen if and when her little sister ever awoke from the coma. If she could recall all her memories as an ikiryo, that might be fine. But, if she awoke from her coma and had no memories since the day she was hit by the car… little Yasuo would be heartbroken. Of course there would be a lot of people who had, over the years, become good friends with the ikiryo of her little sister. The Sunohara's in particular, but also the Furukawa's and even the Okazaki family had made strong bonds of friendship that had lasted many years. All of them would be hurt if the sleeping Fuko awoke and couldn't remember any of them, but none more than Yasuo. He was only a child and he might not be able to understand why his beloved Obasan suddenly didn't know who he was. Reflexively, she wiped the wetness from her eyes while she thought about that uncertain future.

"Hey Maiko-chan," Shuichi quietly asked the reddish-brown haired girl, "is your mom going to be okay?"

"Huh?" Maiko turned and looked up at where her mother was standing and saw the familiar expression on her face. That was the expression she had whenever she or her little brother were sick, or… whenever Obasan Fuko was around. Turning back to her calligraphy, she confidently told them, "She'll be fine. She's like that a lot when my aunt is around."

.

With the kids out of the way, the serious discussion was able to take place around the coffee table in the living room. They had originally wanted to have the discussion around the kitchen table, but there were just too many people.

Tomoya and Kyou sat on either side of Kotomi to give her support. Tomoyo was near by as well, since Kotomi wanted her to know more about what she was helping them get civic approvals for. Across the table was Yukine, who was flanked by her husband and another. The other man was Isamu, who was known to Kotomi, Kyou, and Tomoya as the leader of the construction workers that had been working on the Ichinose house annex. Everyone in the room also knew about his past as one of Yukine's deceased older brother's former gang members. Out of politeness for his determined effort to reform himself, no-one ever talked about his past as a thug, but it was hard to look at him and not suspect that his past was not always a well lit one.

Isamu was fidgeting in his seat. He knew only that Yukine asked him to attend this meeting. She hadn't said what it was about or that so many people would be here. One of those people being… Sakagami Tomoyo. He could see her out of his peripheral vision and felt her looking at him, or thought he did. Even though she had made lunches for him and his friends a few times while they were working on the annex, her presence was casting a different light on the meeting for him. _Did we do something wrong? Did one of the guys steal something from the house? Has the work not been good enough? Are we taking too long to finish the job? Why is she here? Do they think I'm gonna go nuts and hurt someone? Is she here to protect them all from me? Do they all still think of me as an animal? What the hell?_ His recriminations were paused when he felt a soft hand on his tanned and muscular arm.

"Relax." Yukine smiled at Isamu, "You are among friends now."

"Friends?" Isamu was about to look up at Sakagami Tomoyo out of reflex but caught himself. He never thought of any of these people as friends. _Yukine-sama_ _i_ _s a savior, Youhei-san_ _i_ _s her husband, Sakagami Tomoyo_ _i_ _s vengeance incarnate, and the rest of them_ _ar_ _e employers or their friends… but not_ _my friends_ _. My friends aren't this nice. They cuss too much, drink too much, and fight too much. None of them went to a fancy High School or even set foot in a college. None of them are married and have kids at home and I'm damn sure none of them ever had a butler or even seen one before! There's no way I could be friends with any of these nice people._

"Considering what I am about to ask of Isamu-san, I don't know if he will ever think of me as a friend." Kotomi said.

"Eh?" Isamu's interest was piqued, but Kotomi's comment also got the attention of everyone else in the room as well. Only Tomoya and Kyou had any idea of what Kotomi had in mind. Isamu could read the room and could tell that he wasn't the only one that didn't know what this was all about. "So… we're not here to talk about the construction?"

"No, Isamu-san." Yukine squeezed his arm, "This is something new. All I know is that it is extremely dangerous, but it is very important."

"Kotomi?" Tomoyo knew they were here to discuss the science project that Kotomi and her researchers were running in the park across the street from the Furukawa Bakery, but this was the first she heard of it being _extremely dangerous_. If that was the case, she would have no choice but to refuse their permission to use the park.

"I think people are beginning to have misunderstandings about what's going on." Tomoya warned Kotomi.

"You need to tell everyone what this is all about, Kotomi-chan." Kyou added.

"Okay." Kotomi took a deep breath and began. She briefly went over her parent's research into parallel universes. She reminded everyone about the incredible events from May of 2003 when Tomoya and Nagisa were freezing to death, and she told them about her suspicions of what the Illusionary world really was.

"Waitaminit!" Isamu sounded incredulous, "You're serious about this? This shit… um… this kind of thing with bodies freezing really happened? You were all there and saw this?"

"We didn't just see it, Isamu. We were in the baths with them." Yukine recalled that terrible time, "We were doing whatever we could to save their lives. Ryou-chan and Kotomi-chan told us what to do… and it worked."

"I meant this Illusionary World place. You all saw it?" Isamu clarified his question.

"No, only Tomoya-kun and Fuko-chan have any memory of that place." Kotomi answered.

"But their bodies, as well as Nagisa-chan's body, were in peril until they were able to escape from… whatever it was." Tomoyo said.

"So, you saved them? You saved Tomoya-san and this Nagisa-san?" Isamu asked in amazement.

"No." Kotomi answered before Yukine could say _yes_. "We only kept them alive. I believe the person that really saved them was Ushio-chan."

"Ushio-chan…" Isamu looked around the room and noticed some of the others looked as puzzled as he felt. "Who the… who is Ushio-chan?"

"The simplest way to explain it is that she is the daughter of Tomoya-kun and Nagisa-chan from a parallel universe where they were married to each other instead of Tomoya-kun being married to me."

"WHAAAAT?" the room exploded in flabbergasted expression. Only Tomoya and Kyou had heard this much of the explanation before. It was a shock to everyone else.

"Eep!" Kotomi covered her hands over her face from the shout and from everyone staring at her in disbelief.

"Alright, let's say… even if I believe this, how does any of this involve me?" Isamu asked. It was really too much weird science and fantasy for him. If it had nothing to do with him, he was going to make his excuses and leave this madness far behind him.

"It is my belief that Ushio-chan is the one that was able to create the bridge space, or Illusionary World, so that she could resurrect her deceased mother." Kotomi paused and thought about her word choice and corrected herself, "That isn't quite right. She isn't trying to bring her mother back from the dead as much as she is trying to find a time-stream or alternate world where her mother never died in the first place."

"That still doesn't…" Isamu was getting ready to leave when he felt Yukine's hand squeeze his arm again.

"Please, Isamu-san?" Yukine implored, "I assure you that there is something here that is just for you."

"Oh… Okay." Isamu relaxed back into the chair and wondered if there was anything he wouldn't do if Yukine asked him nicely like that.

"My experiments are designed to show us if there is still a bridge in place and if it can be used." Kotomi was now looking at Isamu.

"Used?" Tomoyo wondered what that meant.

"Although I strongly believe that the Illusionary World that Tomoya saw was destroyed, I believe it is possible… even probable that the same Ushio-chan will try again, or another Ushio-chan from a similar parallel world will try. The result is that there is still a chance that the bridge still exists."

"The bridge still existing is one thing." Tomoyo reminded Kotomi, "But you said something about using it?"

"Yes." Kotomi clenched her fist in triumph. She had worked hard to make this explanation understandable to someone that didn't have a doctorate degree in Physics, and it looked like she had succeeded. This little victory inspired her to continue, "The Ushio-chans who are building these Illusionary Worlds are not only interfacing their own origin world. They are constantly searching other parallel worlds for a world that is compatible to their hopes and dreams. If we can interface with one of the Illusionary Worlds, we may be able to travel to other connected worlds."

"Whoa…" Youhei said after a long silence while everyone digested what Kotomi had just told them.

"Kotomi-chan, are… are you serious?" Yukine asked.

"Yes." Kotomi answered simply.

"Dangerous." Tomoyo went back to those words, "You said something about extremely dangerous… is this it? And why are you doing something so dangerous in that park?"

"That park was chosen because it is the place where Nagisa-chan spent a lot of time and where Tomoya-kun saw her practicing the lines from the play she put on." Kotomi looked around the room at everyone but Isamu and asked them, "Do you remember the story of her play?"

"Oh my gods!" Youhei suddenly jumped to his feet. He felt as if all the blood in his body was suddenly carbonated and he was going to erupt. Wonder, excitement, and fear were tossing him about, but he wasn't the only one. Yukine and Tomoyo were also stunned when they made the connection.

"But how did she know?" Tomoyo demanded, "According to what you've said before, Nagisa was dead when Ushio created that place to look for her, and Tomoya never saw Nagisa there… how?"

"WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT?" Isamu demanded.

"In our second year of High School, Nagisa-chan put on a one person play as a little girl all alone in a world that was ending." Yukine answered him, "The girl's goal was to try to get to the place where her dream could come true… or something like that."

"This is all conjecture, but I believe Nagisa-chan is affected by Ushio-chan's search from the Illusionary World." Kotomi told them, "When a Nagisa-chan is found, she is affected by the search. She has these dreams of a place where she has never been, and also… the unexplained illness."

"What is the dangerous part?" Tomoyo demanded.

"There is no danger to the park or anyone in the area." Kotomi assured Tomoyo. Then she turned her full attention on Isamu and said, "The only part that is dangerous is the risk to the exploration teams."

"Exploration teams?" Isamu gaped at what he was hearing.

"There is a possibility that they could be lost, and never be able to return to this world."


	4. Chapter 4 - Fuko's Crisis

**S** **atur** **day afternoon** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **0** **–** **Crossroads Bar**

* * *

A proud house once stood at the important intersection of a highway, a railroad, and a river that connected freight traffic to the sea. That had been a long time ago and times had changed. The river now had several flood control and power generation dams between the house and the sea. The rail line was dilapidated and unused. Parts of it were missing as the iron rails had been scavenged for recycling and the timbers had been taken for landscaping projects. The highway was still there, but had very little traffic since the expressway and the high-speed rail had been built. Other businesses closed and moved away and the once proud house had become a run-down bar.

Inside the house, several walls had been unprofessionally knocked down over the years to make it more useful as a bar. The upstairs had been gutted so that it was now one big party room. Long ago, the intent was for the upstairs to be a place where people might host celebrations and birthday parties. But those kinds of events don't happen in places like this. Now the room was a private area where _things_ happened and no questions were asked. The bartender often heard angry shouts, the rough sounds of people fighting, and screams for mercy or help. Whether he wanted to help or not, his own survival instincts kept him from getting involved and he just turned up the radio a little louder to drown out the things he didn't want to hear.

The upstairs had several people in it now, but the music wasn't too loud. He wasn't worried about those kinds of things this time since Yukine-sama was there. The boys were always better behaved when she was there. The worst they might do to each other would be arm-wrestling or drinking contests when she was around. And, they would never lay a finger on her – he was sure of that. They referred to her as Yukine-sama as much as he did. Generally speaking, they were a pretty happy bunch whenever they were here with her so it was odd that they seemed so subdued this time. But, because of long standing tradition, he didn't ask any questions when they asked for the private room.

He also didn't ask any questions about the other girl in the hooded sweatshirt that went upstairs with them. Other than Yukine-sama, if any girl wanted to go up there with those kind of guys, she had to be a special kind of crazy.

.

The room upstairs was as sombre as the guys had been when they came in. All of them had a drink in their hand and most were looking into that drink and trying to figure things out in their heads.

Mikio was one of the shortest men in the room but thick as a tree trunk and about as sturdy. He wasn't known for being a very aggressive fighter, but defensively, he was hard to beat. Recently, he had put his brawn to use doing foundations and brick-work. He cleared his throat in the quiet room and was the first to speak after Yukine had told them all about _the offer_.

"So, let me get this straight." Mikio asked Yukine, "We're being asked to do something that could be very important, but also dangerous because we're um…"

"Expendable." the hooded girl finished the sentence.

Two of the men in the room stood up at her reply and all of them were angry to hear anyone say something like that about them… whether it was true or not.

"She's not wrong." Isamu admitted glumly, "All of us in this room are in the same boat. None of us have kids, a wife, or even a regular girlfriend. We don't have any family… that will miss us. The law, and all the _good_ people would probably be happier if we just disappeared. So, I don't blame her for thinking we're expendable."

"No!" the hood was thrown back to reveal long cascades of platinum blond hair as Tomoyo insisted, "That is a misunderstanding. I do _not_ think you're expendable. Just like me, all of you have done so much to redeem yourselves. I am, in fact, proud of you. I hate this. I hate this!" Tomoyo slammed her fists down on the table in front of her and there was a cracking sound as the wood began to split.

"Sakagami-san..." Isamu rose and bowed to apologize. Just as she said, he had misunderstood her and had misjudged her as well.

"This is not acceptable! To ask someone to go on this… this… suicide mission! Just because somebody thinks that no-one will miss them… It's not right to think that way." Tomoyo felt tears coming to her eyes. The fact that one of her closest friends would suggest something like this made it all the more dreadful. She wanted to deal the person that suggested such a thing a beating that they would never forget. But that person was… Kotomi? _How could she? How could she even think such a thing?_ She was about to deal the table another angry blow when she felt a hand on her shoulders.

"Thank you, Sakagami-san." Isamu told her, "That… means a lot to us."

"That's not quite right." Yukine spoke up. She waited until all eyes were on her before she continued, "If you have ever met Kotomi-chan, you would know that she is not very good at understanding social things. But, she lost both of her parents when she was a little girl and that has affected her deeply. I am sure that the only thing that she was thinking was that if something happened to any of the explorers – there would be nobody left behind to suffer, like she did."

The mood in the room did change a bit after Yukine's explanation. Even Tomoyo had to agree that Yukine's analysis of Kotomi's actions were better than her assumption that her friend had become an ivory tower elite who was okay with sending the _little people_ off to die for her cause.

"Ain't nobody gonna talk about if dis is fo real?" Iwao asked the room, "Dis whole ting sounds crazy to me."

"Yeah, I don't understand it at all." Isamu admitted, "But they are serious about this… if they can find anyone that would volunteer..."

"I don't think anyone fully understands it except for Kotomi-chan." Yukine admitted, "But she and her researchers are running tests and two days ago they were celebrating because they got some _interesting data_."

"What does that mean?" Iwao was still confused.

"In short, it means that Kotomi thinks they will soon be able to send out the first… explorers." Tomoyo grumbled.

"How soon?" Isamu asked.

"A month to six weeks." Tomoyo replied tersely. She would give them the facts but there was no way she would endorse this insanity.

"Well, I'm in." Iwao smiled.

"WHAT?" everyone in the room looked at him in disbelief.

"I ain't never done nottin _important_ before." Iwao explained his choice, "I's done plenty of tings dat was crazy, dangerous, and stoopid. But I's never done nuttin important. Sakagami-san says we'll be _explorers_ … I likes da sound of dat."

There was a silence after Iwao finished talking and took a swig of his drink. Everyone in the room was following his thoughts and wondering what, if anything, they had ever done that was truly _important_. And, knowing what kind of men they were, what were the chances that they would ever have a chance to do something truly important again in their lives.

"I'm in." the scary, gorilla-like Hiroki said simply. He didn't bother with any explanation like Iwao did, but he wasn't known for talking much anyway.

 _No! No! No! No!_ Tomoyo's frustration was growing exponentially. _You're deciding to do this because of something I said? Fools! Think about what you're doing!_

"You guys…" Isamu tried to reason with his friends but he knew that those two would never back down. In truth, most of the guys in this room would never back down once they'd made up their minds. Instead of reasoning with them, he turned to Yukine and asked her, "Just how important is this anyway? Like, they'll throw us a nice party afterwards or what?"

"I spoke to Tomoya-kun about that." Yukine smiled because she knew how much this would mean to these guys. She also knew the effect it would have, but that couldn't be helped. "He seems to think it will be _names-in-the-history-books_ important. Like Yuri Gagarin or Neil Armstrong."

All of the men except Isamu raised their glasses and drank whatever was left in them.

"Yukine!" Tomoyo cried out. She instantly knew what that kind of statement would do to these guys.

"I'm in!" stout Kenta grunted after he finished his drink and slammed it down on the table.

"I'm in!" Mikio and Takeo were just a moment behind Kenta.

"Ha!" Takeshi laughed when he finished his drink, "Return in glorious victory or go out in a blaze of glory! What else can a real man ask for? I'm in!"

"Well crap." Isamu groaned. He too drank the last of his drink, slammed his mug down and declared, "There's no way I can let a bunch of mutton-heads like you loose on some poor unsuspecting parallel Japan. I'm in too."

Just then, the door burst open and six thugs wielding baseball bats stormed into the room. They didn't look familiar and most looked a bit younger than Isamu's group, but none of them looked any bit weaker.

"So, what do we have here?" the apparent leader took a step forward to challenge the men that had formed a defensive circle around the two girls that were behind them. "You old baldies are having yourselves a private party with some fresh looking tail, and on our turf. It looks like some punishment is in order."

"Dis ain't yor turf numnuts!" Iwao snarled. He had picked up a chair and was taking a step toward the young thugs when he heard a calm voice behind him.

"Gentlemen," Tomoyo had not even stood up from her chair as she evaluated the interlopers. She seemed serene but to those that had ever engaged her in a fight, they knew the look in her eyes had just become feral as she calmly requested, "I'm not sure I truly understood this boy's intentions. Could you all take a step back and give him a chance to better express himself?"

"Tomoyo-chan, what about your image?" Yukine warned Tomoyo. She knew that her friend could really use an opportunity like this to relieve some accumulated tension and frustration, but at what cost?

"Am I right in assuming that whatever happens here, stays here?" Tomoyo asked the room.

"Yeah," Isamu smiled as he backed out of the way but never took his eyes off the uninvited guests. "Nobody talks about what happens in this room."

"What the hell?" the thug leader demanded, "Who does this bitch think she is?"

"She tinks she's Sakagami Tomoyo." Iwao laughed as he backed away with the others to give Tomoyo plenty of room.

"And son," Takeo said without any compassion, "your mouth just wrote a check that your body will never be able to cash."

.

CRASH

Crunch!

"MERCY!"

THUD!

"Aiiieeeeeeeee!"

The bartender was about to turn the radio up but Yukine-sama was sitting across the bar from him and it didn't seem to bother her any.

.

 **S** **un** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **1** **–** **Okazaki house (where the Sunohara's live)**

* * *

Youhei was on the phone wishing his sister a happy birthday. She was still off at college and wouldn't be able to visit for another week when the summer break would start. No-one was looking forward to that more than Mei, who desperately wanted to see her charming nephew again. Only being able to see him on longer vacations, it seemed to her that the little boy was growing up in leaps and jumps.

"I hear papa talking about me!" Yoichi said to his mother.

"Yes," Yukine smiled, "He's very proud of you and wants to tell your Aunt Mei all about you."

"Is Aunt Mei going to come visit soon?" Yoichi asked.

"Yes. Are you looking forward to it?" Yukine chatted with her four and a half year old son while packing up for their afternoon visit to the Okazaki's house.

"Yup!" Yoichi said enthusiastically, "I want to show Aunt Mei my new friends."

"You mean Shuichi-kun, Shuji-kun, and… um… what's that little girl's name?" Yukine teased her son.

"Michiko-chan!" Yoichi exclaimed, "Okāsan, you can't forget Michiko-chan. You just can't!"

"I didn't forget Michiko-chan," Yukine said as she tickled her son, "but you know what I think?"

"What?" Yoichi asked after his mother stopped tickling him.

"I think a certain little boy with brown hair and blue eyes, likes a certain little girl with purple hair and blue eyes." Yukine taunted.

"Yup!" Yoichi said with the unabashed certainty of youth, "But I like Shuichi-kun, Shuji-kun, and Yasuo-kun too."

"What about Maiko-chan?" Yukine asked about Yasuo's older sister.

"She's always mean to Yasuo-kun, so I don't like her so much." Yoichi said with finality.

"Is she mean to you?" Yukine asked her son. She knew that Maiko could act a little haughty, but she was concerned that it might have gotten as bad as bullying.

"She used to, but not any more." Yoichi smiled at the memory of the arrogant girl getting her comeuppance, "Shuichi-kun and Shuji-kun won't let her do mean things any more."

"What about when they aren't around?" Yukine pressed.

Yoichi didn't want to tell his mother that Maiko was still a mean person when the Okazaki boys weren't around, so he looked at his hands and said nothing.

"Fu-chan!" Yukine called out with a little ire in her voice.

"Are you mad at Fuko?" the ikiryo was beside Yukine but looking apprehensive.

"No, Fu-chan. I'm not mad at you, but I am worried about your niece." Yukine tried to sound comforting but there was still an edge in her voice since she was not yet convinced that her son wasn't being bullied.

"Did… did Maiko-chan do something bad again?" Fuko asked.

" _Again_?" Yukine was more concerned now. "Fu-chan, do you know how bad this is?"

"Um… no." Fuko was on the verge of tears. She didn't like seeing Yukine get upset and she didn't like it when anyone was upset with her. But she knew how her niece had been behaving and she knew it was wrong too.

"I don't want my son bullied, so soon I may have to tell your sister that I don't want her daughter around my son any more."

"No!" Fuko didn't want that to happen. She really enjoyed the play sessions when all the kids got together.

"Because I am friends with Tomoya-kun and Kotomi-chan, I will have to tell them about Maiko-chan being a bully… and you know how Kotomi-chan feels about bullies." she warned her friend, "After I tell them, Kotomi won't want Maiko-chan around either."

"No! Please don't do that!" Fuko begged.

"Is there something you can do, Fu-chan?" Yukine suggested, "I know that your sister trusts you to watch after her children from time to time, but do you do anything more than play with them?"

Fuko felt as if an arrow made of her friends words had just pierced her chest.

"Are you really watching over them like a mature person should, or are you just playing like a child?" Yukine knew that she was saying things that her friend didn't want to hear, but if Fuko wanted to be treated like an adult, she would have to start acting like one.

Fuko reeled from the impact of Yukine's second arrow.

"Do you want your niece to be despised by us, or do you want to save her?" Yukine asked.

"Fuko wants to save her!" Fuko cried out. "Tell Fuko what to do and Fuko will save Maiko-chan!"

.

"Where's Fuko?" Youhei asked as his wife and son followed him out the front door.

"Oh… she has an errand to run." Yukine answered vaguely. "She may not be around much for a while."

"Oh? That sounds like a big errand." Youhei was joking.

"Probably not that difficult, but very time consuming." Yukine replied, then to change the subject she quickly asked, "What did your sister have to say?"

"I'll get to that in a minute. I had another call this morning I need to ask you about." Youhei tried to sound pleasant but it was difficult for him to ask his wife if she might be involved in a crime.

"Oh?" Yukine asked innocently.

"You and some of… your _friends_ … went somewhere yesterday. Did something happen?" Youhei asked even as he hoped she would just deny it.

"You know they're your friends too." Yukine pointed out.

"I know. Just… answer the question." Youhei sighed.

"Why do you ask?" Yukine sensed the trap.

"Several bodies were discovered under a bridge near the old dam." Youhei knew that the bar that her _friends_ like to visit was near there.

"That does sound serious. Were they dead?" Yukine did sound surprised.

"No, but some of them may never have full mobility of their arms or legs again. The chief says that they looked like they had been through a rock crushing machine." Youhei noticed that his wife's expression betrayed a slight smile of pride when she heard that.

"What did they have to say about it?" Yukine asked.

"The ones that were conscious wouldn't talk about it." Youhei admitted.

"Well, I can tell you that the boys and I went over to the old bar to talk about Kotomi-chan's proposal, but Tomoyo-chan also went with us and she can vouch that the boys did _not_ get into a fight."

"Seriously?" Youhei sounded greatly relieved.

"Yup! But could you do me a little favor?" Yukine asked as she leaned into Youhei's side and smiled up at him, "Could you be a dear and keep Tomoyo-chan's name out of the report? It might cause problems for her if anyone found out that someone from city-hall was at a place like that."

"Sure, I can do that." Youhei thought about it for a moment and came to the realization, "I'm being played, aren't I?"

"It's in your best interest." Yukine took his hand as they walked along.

"Oh?" Youhei was still concerned.

"...and in the best interests of society in general." Yukine added.

"So, in the interest of serving the public good… I should let this drop?" Youhei surmised.

"Yup." Yukine said as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Fine... As long as I know." Youhei decided that he had investigated this as much as it deserved and would think no more about it.

.

 **Mon** **day** **afternoon** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **2** **–** **Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Tomoyo walked into the familiar bakery to see Yukine manning the shop. Her smile quirked a bit as she remembered numerous afternoons when the old man would leave her to handle the bakery while he skipped out to play baseball at the park across the street.

Yukine's usual smile brightened even more when she saw her friend enter the bakery unexpectedly. There was hardly any business in the afternoons when Kotomi's trucks weren't around the park. She had been at the park all day long for the previous three days, but hadn't shown up today at all. The neighbors didn't mind her experiments any more, ever since she resolved the issue with the vibration and noise pollution. But she didn't bring her trucks out every day - out of concern that she could wear out her welcome.

"Tomoyo-chan!" Yukine wanted to exchange pleasantries but Tomoyo looked concerned about something. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine, but Akio asked me to come out this afternoon. He said it was very important." she looked around again and asked, "He didn't forget I was coming and go over to the park to play baseball did he?"

"Oh no." Yukine assured her, "He just went to get something from his storage shed. He should be right back."

"Oh… you don't know what this is all about do you?" Tomoyo asked.

"I didn't even know that he called you." Yukine admitted. Then she assured her friend, "But if you're worried that it's about the park, don't be. We get a lot of sales every time the trucks are here. Akio-san couldn't be happier."

"Oh, well I guess that's good." Tomoyo felt a relief having heard that.

"Ah! You're here!" Akio called out as he entered the bakery from the doorway that led to the attached home. "I have some big news… and a big offer."

"Oh?" Tomoyo was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be nothing like what she had feared.

Yukine was turning to go clean the ovens when Akio called her back.

"Yukine-chan, you need to stay. This is for both of you." Akio continued when he saw that he had both of their attention. "So, what would you like to hear first… the big news or the big offer?"

"I would like to hear the big news about you getting the part on the television show first." Yukine said.

"Okay, I know this is a big surprise, but… huh?" Akio looked dumbfounded until he hollered, "HOW DID YOU KNOW?"

"Akio-san, please." Yukine chuckled, "It's all you've been talking about since you got back from Tokyo. How could the _big news_ be anything but that?"

"Okay, fair enough." Akio easily accepted Yukine's explanation. With the wind out of his sails, he then said, "I guess I'll tell you about the offer."

"Just a minute." Tomoyo insisted, "I haven't heard anything about this show."

Akio's enthusiasm returned as he got to retell the story about getting the chance to audition for a television show while he was in Tokyo. He told Tomoyo about the medical drama and that he was now getting offered the part of the lead character's best friend.

"That sounds wonderful, Akio!" Tomoyo was truly happy for the old man.

"So, what is the big offer?" Yukine reminded Akio.

"Big offer?" Akio had become so wound up in his story that he had forgotten.

"You said you had big news and a big offer…" Yukine prodded.

"Oh yes… well…" Akio began, "Since Sanae is teaching again and I'll be in Tokyo or Kyoto for the shooting, I was wondering if either of you… or both of you would like to try your hand at running the bakery solo?"

"Really?" Yukine was about to suggest to Tomoyo that they try to do it together.

"I do appreciate the offer Akio, but I'm afraid I can't." Tomoyo had to decline, "I'm so busy with my work at city-hall that I just don't have the time."

"Oh… I don't think I will be able to either." Yukine had to bow out as well, "I could do it on the weekdays when Yoichi is in school, but I wouldn't be able to work the weekends."

"Well, if I have someone to work the weekends through the summer vacation, could you take over the bakery and try to find someone to permanently take over the weekends?" Akio asked Yukine.

"Oh?" Yukine was curious, "Who do you have for the weekends? Will Nagisa-chan be here?"

"No, Nagisa won't be coming back for this summer vacation." Akio sounded a little upset about it, "Ryou-chan's medical school is having special sessions through the summer and Nagisa has decided to stay with her instead of coming home."

"Well, you wouldn't see her anyway." Tomoyo pointed out, "Even if she came home, you would be away for the shooting of your television show, right?"

"Oh yeah." Akio actually hadn't thought that through until now.

"So, who is it?" Yukine demanded.

"Your sister-in-law." Akio told Yukine.

"Mei-chan?" Yukine asked with some surprise. She was pretty certain that her husband was only expecting a brief visit from his sister.

"Yes, Mei-chan could handle it." Tomoyo gave her support to the younger girl. They had worked together before and she had been impressed with both the girl's baking skills and her maturity.

"I look forward to it." Yukine smiled at the double meaning only she was aware of.

.

 **Wednes** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **4** **–** **Tanoshimi** **Elementary School**

* * *

Kouko walked along the familiar sidewalk to the school that her daughter had been attending for only four months. It was a nice school, but it was no longer the school she wanted her daughter in. She had made a promise… or at least joined in a wish with her friends a long time ago and now it seemed that wish could come true. She had filled out the forms and made the phone calls and had heard only this morning that everything had been approved. Now, she had something wonderful to tell her daughter that she knew would excite her. Kouko only wondered if she should tell Maiko-chan now or wait until after school. Realizing that her daughter only had three days left to say goodbye to all of her friends, she decided to tell her now.

"Maiko-chan, would you be sad if I told you that you won't be coming back to this school after the summer break?" Kouko asked.

"Huh? Why not?" Maiko seemed surprised, but not upset.

"Well, I asked if it would be okay if you went to the same school with Shuichi and Shuji and they said okay." Kouko simplified all the work she had put into this for her little girl.

"Shuichi and Shuji said it would be okay?" Maiko was a little surprised that her mother would have to get permission from a couple of boys.

"No, silly." Kouko laughed, "I got permission from the principal at their school.

"Oh… I guess that would be okay." Maiko actually didn't have any friends at this school that she was as close to as she had become with Shuichi and Shuji.

"Okay then, that means you only have three days left to say goodbye to all your friends since summer vacation starts on Saturday, okay?" Kouko reminded her daughter.

"Yes," Maiko droned as they got to the entrance gate to her school.

"Okay Maiko-chan, have a fun day at your school!" Kouko smiled as she wished her daughter well in the way they had been doing since the first day of class back in April.

"Okay Okāsan, have a fun day at your school!" Maiko replied with an exaggerated smile. She waved back at her mother until she was out of sight then turned toward the entrance to her school.

A boy from her class had been standing next to the stone wall and watching Maiko and Kouko's routine with envy. His own mother made his lunch for him every day, but she was off to work before he was awake in the morning.

"Wow, your mom is real nice." he commented before he could stop himself.

"Shut up!" Maiko pushed him hard. He wasn't ready for the attack at all and was completely off balance. It's not that a Kindergarten age child could do all that much damage by pushing someone, but he was now falling head first into the stone wall.

Except he didn't. Everyone else around was stunned that he seemed to stop falling just short of the stone wall as if someone had caught him.

Maiko was stunned too, but for a very different reason. Just above the surprised but unscathed boy's body were a pair of brown eyes… just floating there in the air and… glaring at her.

"Come on." a girl from Maiko's class helped the boy up and kept herself between Maiko and the boy as she told him, "Baka, you should know better than to talk to her. Everyone knows she's a bully."

Hearing her classmates call her a bully was disturbing, but she didn't react at all. She stood transfixed by the eyes only she seemed to see. At the age of five, she was too young to worry if she was going insane, but she knew that something was terribly wrong. As soon as all the other children had left, the eyes blinked and were gone. Now released from the staring contest with the disembodied eyes, she turned to head for her classroom and ran into…

"Obachan?" Maiko cried out when she saw Fuko looking at her with a pained expression. In fact, it looked like she was crying. "Obachan, what's wrong?"

"Fuko is so sad now, Maiko-chan." Fuko stuttered.

"Why? What happened?" Maiko was concerned about her aunt. She had never seen her Obachan like this before.

"Fuko has to go now and tell Onee-chan what happened." Fuko said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"What? What happened?" Maiko asked.

"You pushed a boy real hard. All he did was say that Onee-chan is nice, and you pushed him so hard. He could have been hurt real bad." Fuko was horrified even having to recount what she had just witnessed.

"But he didn't… I didn't…" Maiko was suddenly afraid. She was certain Fuko hadn't been there when she pushed the stupid boy.

"Don't lie to Fuko! Fuko saw everything!" Fuko shouted at her niece, "Fuko heard everything too! You bullied him because he said Onee-chan is nice? Well, Fuko says that Onee-chan is nice too! Are you going to bully Fuko now?"

"No! Obachan, you can't tell Okāsan… you just can't!" Maiko implored. She took a step towards Fuko to grab onto the yellow high school jacket that her aunt was always wearing, but Fuko wasn't there any more and she ended up stumbling to her knees.

"Obachan?" Maiko looked around but didn't see her aunt anywhere. "Obachan, where did you go?"

There was no answer. Maiko listened until she heard the bell from the school that indicated it was time for all the classes to start.

"Obachan, don't leave me! Please Obachan!" Maiko cried out to the vacant spaces of the school's courtyard.

Still, there was no response.

.

 **Thurs** **day** **even** **ing** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **5** **–** **Police Station**

* * *

Youhei was gathering his things to leave when he heard a shout like a lion's roar.

"Sunohara!" the Chief bellowed.

"Sir!" Youhei stood at attention and answered.

"Relax, Sunohara." the Chief laughed, "You're not in the academy any more."

"Yes Chief." Youhei relaxed from the _attention_ position, but continued standing.

"I read your report about those broken thugs you investigated. It's good work, but did you really investigate your own wife?" the Chief asked in amazement.

"Yes Chief. Is there a problem?" Youhei asked.

"Not for the report, but there might be a problem for you." the Chief summed up the issue, "You're about to be promoted to Detective, so for your wife to be seen going into a place like that…"

"She had a good reason for being there." Youhei assured his boss.

"Oh?" the Chief started thumbing through the folder in his hands, "I don't recall seeing anything about this _good reason_ for a cop's wife to be in a place like that."

"Chief," Youhei took a deep breath before continuing, "It's true that those guys used to be gang members, but they have been working construction jobs for six years now. In fact, they are some of the prime contacts that the city uses after a big storm or a quake."

"So, your wife wants to hire these guys to do some construction work?" the Chief asked dubiously.

"No, sir." Youhei explained, "My wife was representing the interests of Ichinose Kotomi… I mean, Okazaki Kotomi."

"So, Okazaki Kotomi wants to hire these guys to do some construction work?" the Chief asked… still sounding dubious.

"She has already hired them. They were the ones that built the new wing on her house." Youhei answered.

"Oh? I wasn't aware of that." the Chief admitted. Deciding against insinuating that the community's most notable person might be up to something nefarious, he changed tactic. "Sunohara, I've changed my mind. I've decided that this is a bad report after all."

"Chief?" Youhei was stunned. He had made the report in accordance with all the published guidelines.

"Here's the lesson, Sunohara." the Chief said as he dropped the report back on Sunohara's desk, "If an investigation leads to a family member or a friend and you ignore it, you'll be fired… and you may go to jail yourself. But if you do report it and it turns out that they're innocent, you include every detail and every fact that shows them to be innocent so there are no questions left to ask. You got that?"

"Yes Chief." Youhei was smart enough to realize that his boss was doing him a favor.

"Good, now have the revised report on my desk before you leave today." the Chief said as he walked back to his office.

Youhei groaned as he sat back down at his desk and got to work on revising the report.

.

 **Friday** **afternoon** **, Ju** **ly** **1** **6** **–** **Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

The jingle let Yukine know that someone had entered the bakery. She looked up from the shelves she was wiping down to see three girls dressed in her old high school's summer uniform. They looked nervous while they peered around the bakery as if looking for something.

"Good afternoon, can I help you?" Yukine asked the girls. Even after the greeting, they still seemed tense, but the shorter of the three was able to speak up.

"Hello, I'm Himura Cho from the Hikarizaka High School. We're looking for someone called Miyazawa Yukine." the girl said politely.

"I got married, so my name is Sunohara Yukine now." Yukine gave the three girls a sad smile and asked them, "Are you in the Performance Club?"

"How… how did you know that?" little Cho asked.

"You're holding a hand carved wooden star in your hand." Yukine pointed out.

"Yes… do you know what it means?" Cho asked.

"It means that you no longer remember Fuko." Yukine tried to maintain the smile but it was a losing battle. For the past two days, they could hear Fuko crying in her room, but whenever they opened the door, she wasn't there.

"Remember Fuko?" Cho looked up at her friends and asked, "That phrase sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

"If it sounds familiar to you, that means you might be able to remember with a little help. Would you like to try a little trick?" Yukine asked the girls. After they nodded, she told them, "I want you to close your eyes and say _remember Fuko_ over and over while you listen to me talk. You don't have to say it loud, and try to say it slowly."

"Remember Fuko. Remember Fuko. Remember Fuko." the girls began chanting.

"Try to imagine a short girl with long brown hair tied in a big blue bow. She's cute and she looks like she might be a grade schooler but she is wearing the Hikarizaka winter uniform."

One of the girls gasped and opened her eyes but she kept chanting with her friends.

"Sometimes she is carrying a wooden starfish like the one you brought me today." Yukine continued her litany.

Another girl opened her eyes and gasped as she recovered her memory of Fuko.

"Sometimes people say they see her running through the halls like she is trying to find someone." Yukine stopped when Cho finally gasped and opened her eyes.

"I remember Fuko!" Cho cried out, "But Sunohara-san, she isn't running through the halls like she is looking for someone any more. She's running through the halls and crying! Do you know why?"

"I'm afraid I do." Yukine handed the girls some of her banana-raisin-cinnamon loaves and told them, "Something has happened that has made Fuko very sad. More-so than she has ever been before. She is retreating because she can't deal with the sadness."

"What happened?" one of the girls asked.

"What will happen to Fuko?" the other asked.

"I'm not sure what happened. She hasn't talked to me in a few days either. But if we can't reach her…" Yukine wiped the gathered tears from her eyes and told them, "If we can't reach her soon, nobody will be able to remember Fuko… not even me."


	5. Chapter 5 - Tomoyo's Surprise

**Tues** **day** **early** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

"Good morning Yukine-chan!" Mei called out as she ducked her head and emerged from the doorway that led into the residence. At 180 centimeters tall, she now dwarfed both Yukine and her onii-chan, and was the hero of her college volleyball team.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." Yukine said with a smile as she watched the tall girl put her apron on.

"Ha! I'm still getting used to it myself. The only time I don't feel out of place is on the volleyball court." Mei said wistfully as she coveted her sister-in-laws much more reasonable 159 centimeter height. "Sometimes I really wish I could be normal like you."

"Huh? I'm not normal." Yukine replied.

"Sure you are." Mei illustrated her point by putting the palm of her hand on the top of Yukine's head.

"You're about to complete three years of college and you think height is the only thing that determines normalcy?" Yukine looked askance at the tall girl.

"Well no, but…" Mei's response was cut off by the ringing of the bell that announced a customer had just come through the bakery door.

"Good morning!" Yukine and Mei called out together.

.

After they had served several customers, they got another chance to talk and Yukine was able to ask what had been on her mind ever since the tall girl had come into the shop.

"Mei-chan, it's not that I don't mind you helping me, but what are you doing up so early this morning? I thought you were only going to be doing this on the weekends?"

"Eh?" Mei looked confused, "Did you forget? You told me that you would need this day off because it was someone's birthday."

"I did?" Yukine was surprised. She was normally very good at remembering birthdays, but the only one that came to mind was Furukawa Akio's. He was still in Tokyo though and even if he wasn't, she would hardly need to take the day off for it since he would be right here anyway.

"Yukine-chan, are you getting forgetful?" Mei sounded a bit concerned.

"I… I don't know." Yukine had a vague memory now that she had indeed asked for this day off and that there was something important she needed to do. But it was like trying to remember the details of a dream when all that was left were vague shadows of memories. "Did I say anything about who's birthday it was?"

"No… well, you said it was an old friend that you hadn't heard from in a while and you might need to go visit her in the hospital." Mei recalled their conversation.

"That's strange. I can't think of anyone I know that is in the hospital, but there is something oddly familiar about all of this that… I just can't put my finger on." Yukine said as she untied her apron.

"You're going to take the day off even if you can't remember?" Mei asked. She didn't mind, but it would have been more fun working with her sister-in-law than alone.

"Yeah, something might come to me and… I feel like this is something important."

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **Hikarizaka High School Performance Club** **room**

* * *

Fuko stood in the middle of the room and looked around. Although it was summer time, she was still wearing her winter uniform as she always did when she appeared at the school… or anywhere for that matter. With the air conditioning turned off and the windows closed, the room was uncomfortably hot. The lights were off and no-one else was around. Fuko didn't think about the date before she came here. She only wanted to go somewhere familiar and be around some friends for a while… even if none of them could see her.

It had been like that for a while now. At first, people she had been friends with didn't remember her, and then… they couldn't even see her any more. Fuko remembered that this had happened before and it had made her very sad then as well. Someone had remembered her though. Someone… in this school. Fuko turned toward the door to the room and the next moment she was running through the deserted hallway to get to the resource room on a different floor in the old building.

But… it wasn't there. Or rather, the room was still there, but it wasn't a resource room any more. The whole room was now filled with boxes and it didn't look like anyone had been there in years.

"That's not right. Yu-chan should be here." Fuko remembered seeing Yukine and Youhei together but couldn't remember where she had seen them. Kneeling in the hallway, she held her head in her hands and cried out, "Fuko's head hurts. Why are all of Fuko's memories so fuzzy? Fuko needs your help, Yu-chan… why can't I find you? Something is wrong with Fuko. Something is so wrong."

"Is somebody there?" a security guard swept the beam of his flashlight across the long tile floor of the hallway. For a moment, he thought he saw the shadow of someone crouching in the hallway about half way down to the exit doors at the other end of the hallway, but there was no-one there after all. To be sure, he called out again and told the mysterious visitor, "The school is closed down for the summer break, so even if you're a student at this school – it's still trespassing. You hear me?"

Fuko stood up in shock. The man's flashlight was right on her, but he couldn't see her. But that wasn't what shocked her. _Summer break? Is that why Fuko can't find anyone? But… Fuko doesn't know where to look for her if she's not here! Maybe… maybe onee-chan can help Fuko!_

The security guard heard footsteps coming toward him and then felt the air stir around him as if someone had just run by his arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw a tail of long hair in a big blue bow… _but… there's no-one here!_ Running out of the building into the relative normalcy of the courtyard he exclaimed, "Crap, I really hate this job!"

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **Yoshino residence**

* * *

"Fuko?" Maiko reeled around the corner from her room and almost ran into her mother. "Okāsan, did you say something about Obachan Fuko? Is she here?"

"Maiko-chan?" Kouko was thrilled to see her daughter out of her bedroom. Ever since the day she had told her daughter that she would be changing schools, Maiko had been listless and rarely came out of her room. On the other hand, she had surely chosen a strange reason to come out now. With concern in her eyes, Kouko knelt next to her teary eyed daughter and asked, "Of course, Fu-chan isn't here. What would make you think that?"

"Why wouldn't she be here?" Maiko pouted, "She used to come play with Yasuo all the time!"

"My goodness, what an imagination you have!" Kouko tried to laugh off her daughter's silliness, "You know that is quite impossible."

"What?" Maiko was startled, "No it's not! She did too come to play with Yasuo! Tell her Yasuo!" Maiko yelled at her nearby little brother.

Yasuo didn't know what his big sister was talking about but he didn't want to lie to his mother for her. Even if she hit him for it, he just didn't want to do that.

"TELL HER YASUO!" Maiko screamed at her cowering little brother.

Yasuo whimpered as he flinched away from his sister and reflexively put his arms over his face.

"Maiko!" Kouko shouted down her daughter and wondered what had gotten into the girl. There had been some speculation that she was bullying other children, but the Okazaki boys said she didn't bully anyone when she was with them. Kouko had let it go at the time, but there was no denying what she had just seen. Watching her son flinch away and cover his face were telltale signs that he was being physically abused… and it looked like the abuser… was Maiko.

"But… but it's true." Maiko said as she backed away from her brother.

"Yasuo-kun," Kouko pulled her frightened son into a gentle embrace and patted his head as she asked, "I need to know the truth now so I promise that I won't be mad at you okay?"

"Okay." Yasuo felt less scared now that he was in his mother's protective arms.

"Has someone been coming over here and playing with you?" Kouko asked the little boy.

"No." Yasuo said simply.

"He's lying!" Maiko yelled.

"Silence!" Kouko hissed at her daughter. "I will be speaking with you in a minute. Until then, I don't want to hear a single word from you." Turning back to her son, she shut down the glare in her eyes and asked him, "Are you sure that no-one has been coming over to play with you?"

"I'm sure. No-one comes here to play with me because…" Yasuo suddenly clapped his hands over his mouth and looked genuinely scared.

"Because… why?" Kouko asked the frightened boy, but he only seemed more frightened. The growing suspicion was making her feel sick to her stomach but she had to know, "Tell me why you're afraid to tell me, Yasuo."

"She made me promise not to tell you. She'll hurt me again if I do." Yasuo told his mother.

" _She_ …" Kouko had used a trick to get that much out of him. Bullies usually threatened others not to _tell_ , but they rarely threatened them not to _tell_ why they couldn't _tell_. Still, she had to be sure, "Yasuo… son, I need you to tell Okāsan who this _she_ is that made you make that promise."

"Onee-chan." Yasuo answered innocently. He still wasn't aware of the trick that had been played on him to get him to divulge the truth. He also wasn't aware that his mother now knew everything. Then again, he was only four years old.

"Maiko-chan," Kouko didn't turn to face her daughter and was mostly able to keep her anger out of her voice when she ordered the child, "Tell your little brother Yasuo that you release him from all promises and that he can now tell me anything I ask."

"Ah!" Maiko knew she was in a lot of trouble now, but there was no way for her to grasp just how bad it was. In all of her short life, she had never seen her mother this angry before. The fear made it hard for her to breathe and even hard to think.

"Maiko!" Kouko shouted. She still had not turned to look at her daughter.

"It's as Okāsan says." Maiko choked out the words to her little brother, "tell her anything she asks."

"Now… Yasuo," Kouko swallowed and struggled to keep herself from breaking down into tears as she asked once more, "Why is it that no-one comes here to play with you?"

"Because they're afraid of onee-chan. They don't want her to hurt them again." Yasuo answered the question, but was looking over his mother's shoulder at his stricken sister and wondering why she was so frightened.

 _...again_

"I see." Kouko's shoulders fell. She had already suspected that she would find something bad when she asked the question, but this was far worse than she had imagined. She let go of Yasuo and patted him on the bottom, "Now, go find your father and ask him to help you get ready. I need to speak to Maiko alone for a bit."

"Okay!" Yasuo said cheerfully as he ran off. Daddy would help him get ready to go to the amusement park. This year would be the first year he would be able to ride some of the larger rides and he was very excited.

He had been the only one in that room that had been excited though. When he was gone, the missing bright light of his personality left only fear, despair, and sadness behind.

"But… it's not true!" Maiko protested, "Obachan Fuko really did come over and play with him all the time."

"MY LITTLE SISTER IS IN A COMA!" Kouko screamed. "She's been in a hospital bed since before you were born. She can't wake up. She can't walk. She can't talk. She certainty can't play with your brother!"

"Huh?" Maiko couldn't believe what her mother was saying.

"And it's all because of me." Kouko sobbed. "I lost my little sister because I wouldn't pay enough attention to her. So I paid too much attention to you and now… you're a bully that hurts other children, and even hurts her own little brother. I… I'm such a failure."

"What?" Maiko was startled by her mother's sudden sadness. As frightening as her anger had been, she would rather see her mother angry at her than to see her like this.

"I failed my little sister, and now I failed my daughter." Kouko cried to herself more than an answer to Maiko.

"No, Okāsan, it's not true!" Maiko squawked, "Obachan Fuko isn't in a hospital bed! She was here just last week! I saw her a week ago when she caught me…"

"STOP!" Kouko cried out to her daughter, "Just stop lying to me! Do you know why you and your brother and your father were going to the amusement park – without me? It's because today is Fu-chan's birthday. She is twenty-four years old today and I am going to be up at the Hospital to spend the day with her. It honestly won't be very fun. I'll read books to her and tell her about what has been happening in my life… but she will just lie there. Never looking at me. Never talking to me. Never showing me any sign that the little sister that adored me so much… the little sister that I ignored… is still in there."

"N...no, that can't be." Maiko was worried that there was something dreadfully wrong with her mother now. It wasn't even a week ago that her aunt had caught her bullying that stupid boy and got upset with her.

"Everything okay in here?" Yusuke had his small son in a piggy-back carry and looked ready to go spend the day in a sunny place.

"No," Kouko replied as she pulled herself to her feet, "Maiko-chan will be coming with me to the hospital, so it will be only you boys going to the amusement park today."

"What! But mom…" Maiko started to whine but her mother's glare shut her down.

"Do you want me to tell your father why you don't deserve to go to the amusement park today?" Kouko asked flatly.

"Eep!" Maiko got quiet very quickly. Not getting to go to the amusement park would be the least of her concerns if her father found out what she was in trouble for.

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **City Hall**

* * *

Tomoyo had just arrived at her desk when she heard an oily and unwelcome, but familiar voice.

"Sakagami-san." the rumpled looking man in the suit that looked like it had been slept in called out.

"Yes?" Tomoyo stood as the man approached her – but he didn't get too close. Even though he was her supervisor, she hadn't hesitated to put his face into the floor when he grabbed her butt in the file room, on her first day at work. Ever since then, he had been very cautious around her.

"There's an old man over there asking for you…" the supervisor was about to make a comment about the inappropriateness of receiving personal guests at work when he noticed that the old man he was gesturing towards was talking and laughing with the Mayor. He almost laughed at the old man since he knew from personal experience that sucking up to the Mayor was pointless. Then he noticed that the dynamic was different. It was the Mayor that was being overly friendly with the old man.

"The _old man_ is Kobayashi-hakase." Tomoyo said as she straightened her clothes before walking over to meet with the two men.

 _Hakase?_ The supervisor didn't recognize the old man's name, but his honorific indicated that he was not someone to be trifled with. The fact that Tomoyo used his honorific at all meant something. The girl was infuriating by the way she didn't use honorifics for anyone. There had been several complaints about it and he had clung to that as the basis for the poor performance review he planned to give her. In truth, she was remarkable in every other respect, but he was good at this game. He had planned to use her annoying habit against her to make sure her career suffered an unrecoverable death due to _lack of respect for citizens, peers, and superiors_. However, any thoughts the supervisor had of revenge for what had happened in the file room were now evaporated. He knew better than to try anything with someone that was that well connected. The best thing to do now was to get some distance between himself and her. A half-smile formed on his lips when he decided to use the _re-assign to another department that can make better use of her skills_ ploy.

.

Less than ten minutes after greeting Kobayashi and the Mayor, Tomoyo found herself in Kobayashi's car. The Mayor cheerfully waved bye-bye as they sped away from City Hall back in the direction of the Furukawa Bakery.

"Kobayashi-hakase, I don't feel like this is right." Tomoyo wanted to voice her objection while trying not to offend the gentleman.

"Oh?" Kobayashi's eyebrow raised but he kept his eyes on the road, "Tell me what is bothering you."

"I am an employee of the taxpayers of this city." Tomoyo tried to be as concise as possible, "For the Mayor to let you take me away for some private matter is…"

"An investment." Kobayashi finished her sentence.

"An investment?" Tomoyo asked.

"Absolutely," Kobayashi chuckled, "The Mayor knows that I am currently deciding where to build the scientific facility that will further Kotomi's research. Wherever that facility is built, the local economy and tax base will get a boost from the number of jobs that will be created. And keep in mind that these aren't cheap jobs either. The facility will employ a significant number of doctors, engineers, and scientists. All of this is good for the community that he represents."

"So… this isn't a waste of the taxpayer's money?" Tomoyo felt that she understood that point, but she just wanted to hear him say it.

"Think of it this way," Kobayashi instructed, "For the cost of one minor city employee now, the community tax base will be increasing by hundreds of millions of yen over the next several months."

"Months?" Tomoyo asked in surprise, "I thought the build-up would be over the next several years?"

"Kotomi's research is moving along much more quickly than anyone had anticipated." Kobayashi said proudly, "Truly, she is a prodigy of her remarkable parents."

"Yes… she is quite… incredible." Tomoyo admitted.

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **The Park (across the street from the bakery)**

* * *

Kotomi was nervous. There was nothing wrong with her project but this was a situation she didn't think she would be in. Kyou was at her school wrapping a few things up and Tomoya was at home getting the children ready to go to the amusement park. She found herself at the park surrounded by a few of the workers that she recognized and a lot of new faces that she didn't. Unfortunately, since this was just for training and not a scheduled test, none of the technicians she was more familiar with were here. Without the people she had counted on to be here, Kotomi was starting to panic. _Too many… new… faces._ With her stability already fractured, she almost felt the urge to flee when several very rough looking men in coveralls started walking toward her.

"Kotomi-sama?" Isamu called out to his employer. He had been at her house every day for several months as he and his boys finished the new wing on the house. They had interacted many times but at least one of the other three were always around whenever he had seen her before. He didn't see Tomoya-sama, Kyou-sama, or Tomoyo-sama now and it looked like Kotomi was having an internal crisis. He looked at all the people in the park and gathered near the trucks again but still didn't see her husband or best friends anywhere around. Isamu remembered seeing the purple haired genius like this before and how Tomoya-sama had rescued her. Taking a deep breath, he decided to give it a try, "Kotomi-chan?"

"I… Isamu-kun?" Kotomi's eyes locked onto the short but rugged looking man in the dark green coveralls.

 _Yes!_ Isamu felt a personal victory when she came out of her trance and responded to him. Then he quietly asked her, "Are you okay?"

"They couldn't be here this morning… and… um…" Kotomi found herself automatically reaching for Isamu's muscular arm to cling to.

"Uh… okay." Isamu was stunned when the purple haired genius took his arm and then seemed to relax a bit. "What do you want us to do?"

"I don't…" Kotomi was having a hard time thinking at the moment. She knew that everyone was looking to her for direction now, but being able to speak to them now was just too high of a hurdle for her. Even though the chaos and panic in her mind were diminishing, she was still having a hard time. Fortunately, she heard a few more familiar voices cutting through the fog of confusion and fear.

"What's going on here?" Tomoyo asked when she saw Kotomi hanging onto the arm of a former gang member she had once beaten up. _No! I mustn't think of him like that any more._ _Like me, he too_ _has reform_ _ed_ _himself. Still, what is he doing with Kotomi?_ Then Tomoyo noticed that Isamu was silently mouthing some words to her.

 _Help me!_ Isamu begged Tomoyo. He hadn't realized until Kotomi was clinging to him that he felt extremely uncomfortable with this girl on his arm. She was delicate and beautiful. She was one of the _nice_ people. A _good_ person of the community. Someone like her shouldn't be touching someone like him so casually. He wanted to escape her grasp, but he felt as if any move he made would break the fragile girl.

Tomoyo didn't bother with the verbal handshake. She simply stepped up and pulled Kotomi into a hug. The trick worked almost immediately. Kotomi soon released Isamu and her arms wrapped around the back of the platinum blond.

"Th… thank you Tomoyo-chan." Kotomi said softly with her face hidden in the long curtains of platinum blond hair.

"All right, let's get the trucks set up…" Kobayashi said to the workers as he strode off toward the nearest group of technicians.

"You're not my boss." one of the technicians replied. His defiance was forgotten when a huge hand grabbed his shoulder and squeezed him painfully.

"Kobayashi-hakase, you want I should break his arms and legs?" Iwao offered to discipline the rude youth.

"No, no. That won't be necessary. I can take care of this." Kobayashi almost laughed at the paled look on the youngster's face. He pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of the petrified young man's ID badge. A few minutes later he had sent a text message and a minute after that, his phone rang.

"Kobayashi here." he answered. He still stood only a meter away from the recalcitrant young man while he had his conversation.

Something could be heard from the phone but only Kobayashi could understand the words.

"No, I don't care if you fire him but I do need him removed from this project." Kobayashi said to the voice on the phone while looking into the eyes of the 'him' in question.

The voice seemed to ask a question.

"Frankly, I have no idea about his technical skills but he is rude and we simply cannot have caustic personalities around Kotomi. I thought I had explained that to you." Kobayashi stressed the last sentence.

The voice now sounded apologetic.

"Very well then, Kobayashi out." Kobayashi hung up his phone and waited less than a minute before the now frightened young man's phone indicated he had received a text message.

"He… he fired me… in a text message!" the furious young man exclaimed. He wanted to hit the old man that had just got him fired but there was this really big hand still on his shoulder…

"Now can I break his arms and legs?" Iwao asked hopefully and the young man remembered why he was supposed to be scared and not defiant, rude, recalcitrant, or furious.

.

For the better part of an hour, Kobayashi-hakase took the rough looking men in the coveralls around the park and showed them the different trucks and the exact places they would be parked during the experiment.

While they were off, Tomoyo remained in the park with Kotomi. Even though Kotomi was the older of the two, Tomoyo looked like the mother figure comforting a scared child after a terrible fright. Despite Tomoyo's apparent calm, she was relieved when Kotomi finally took a deep breath and stepped away.

"Thank you, Tomoyo-chan. This is somewhat embarrassing. I really thought I could handle it today." Kotomi apologized.

"No. It's okay" Tomoyo reassured her friend. "So, what did you need me here for?" As much as Kobayashi-hakase had convinced Tomoyo that her presence here was a benefit to the community, she was hopeful that her usefulness wouldn't be as Kotomi's keeper.

"I need your help with the Explorers." Kotomi said.

"Explorers, eh?" Is that what you've decided to call them?" Tomoyo didn't think Kotomi could have come up with something so devious and wondered whether it was Tomoya or Kyou that had persuaded her to do it. By calling them something as grandiose as _Explorers_ , she would stroke their pride, solidify their loyalty to her, and give them a nice title to help them forget just how dangerous a thing they were about to do.

"Eh?" Kotomi cocked her head at the question, "I didn't call them Explorers. That's a name they chose for themselves. Or rather, they said that you gave it to them, Tomoyo-chan."

"What?" Tomoyo was stunned. _Me! I did not…_ Suddenly she remembered something Iwao had said that day that they all met at the Crossroads Bar.

 _Sakagami-san says we'll be explorers… I likes da sound of dat._

"But… Yukine called them explorers before I did!" Tomoyo tried to get away from the unwanted credit of giving them that title.

"Did she? Well, what is important is that they believe you are looking out for them." Kotomi said.

"They do?" Tomoyo was about to argue that assumption, but once again – she remembered something from the Crossroads Bar that shook her conviction. This time it was something Isamu had said.

 _Thank you, Sakagami-san. That… means a lot to us._

He had said that, after she had angrily told them that she did not think of them as _expendable_ and that she was proud of them… for having redeemed themselves. The words she shouted to the room echoed in her ears again.

 _I am, in fact, proud of you._

"Oh no, what have I done?" Tomoyo reeled from the realization that the one person that had successfully maneuvered the hearts and minds of Isamu and his boys… had been her.

"Pardon?" Kotomi couldn't figure out why Tomoyo-chan seemed upset but she was unsure of that assessment. She knew she sometimes had a difficult time reading Tomoyo, so it could be sadness or anger she was seeing but Kotomi couldn't be certain. She could only go with the probabilities. "Are you angry with me, Tomoyo-chan?"

"No! No! No!" Tomoyo said emphatically, "If anything, I'm angry with myself."

"I don't understand. Why are you angry with yourself?" Kotomi asked.

"Kotomi, I… I know you need them for this experiment of yours, but I… I am against them going." Tomoyo told Kotomi, "Redeeming yourself from that kind of past is very hard and they all did it. And now to have them needlessly throw their lives away for a science project… I am against it."

"I am against it too." Kotomi appeared to agree with her emotional friend. "That is why I need you. That is why _they_ need you."

"What?" Tomoyo could not see the connection.

"Whether or not you agree to help, they are determined to do this. Although I find their strong will and conviction admirable, I am concerned about their safety." Kotomi explained, "Although the variables of that which is currently unknown are staggering, I have made the calculations to the best of my abilities. The results are rather grim."

"How grim?" Tomoyo asked.

"The chances that the entire team will make it back safely are less than twenty percent. The chances of at least one member of a four man team will be unable to return is as high as fifty percent. There is a seventy percent chance that the entire team will be lost." Kotomi reported her calculations without emotion.

"Kotomi!" Tomoyo was stunned that she was hearing this.

"However, their chances are significantly better if you help them to prepare." Kotomi added.

"How… how much better?" Tomoyo asked.

"If they are adequately trained beforehand, the chances of the four-man team returning intact are better than eighty percent." Kotomi reported.

"I can't believe that my help could make that much of a difference." Tomoyo said in surprise.

"It is math. It requires no belief structure." Kotomi said with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh?" Tomoyo was confused.

"That was a joke." Kotomi frowned, "I guess I'm still not very good at those."

"Ah." Tomoyo was about to quip that if humor didn't work out she could always fall back on the Violin, but decided instead to ask a more serious question, "So the numbers you quoted to me… was that a joke too?"

"No," Kotomi realized the error of trying to tell a joke while presenting factual data, "the numbers were real."

"Well then, I guess I'd better get to work." Tomoyo decided to do what she could to give the boys the best possible chances to return safely.

.

 **Tues** **day** **noon** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **Hospital Coma ward**

* * *

Kouko had come every year to see her sleeping sister on her birthday but this was the first time there had been several doctors and nurses in the room when she got there.

"What's wrong with Fu-chan?" Kouko demanded when she saw the concerned faces on the room full of medical professionals.

"Ah, Ibuki-san… sorry, it's Yoshino-san, isn't it?" A familiar older nurse pulled Kouko and her daughter aside while most of the medical staff cleared the room.

"What's wrong with my little sister?" Kouko now pleaded with the familiar face.

"It's nothing to be overly concerned about." the old nurse assured Kouko, "Your sister has had her ups and downs before and this is probably just another cycle."

"What do you mean?" Kouko asked.

"Well, she's been doing remarkably well for the last six years or so… you remember that time her body was so cold? Well, her health started deteriorating about a week ago and we are considering moving her to the Intensive Care Unit for a bit until she starts doing better."

While the nurse was talking, Maiko left her mother's side and crept over to see the body of the sleeping girl. The bed was too tall for her to see her face well, so Maiko climbed up on the bed next to the girl's hip and looked at her face. There she saw a face that was slack from long dreamless sleep, and yet instantly recognizable.

"Obachan?" Maiko gasped in surprise. "Obachan, it's me… Maiko-chan. Please wake up! I miss you, Obachan!" Her little hand reached out and took her aunt's warm but limp and lifeless hand in her own and held it as she cried out, "Even if you like to play with stupid Yasuo more than me… I still love you. Please wake up and play with me again!"

"Maiko, that's enough!" Kouko was stunned that her daughter would take a lie to such extents.

"Obachan! I'm sorry! I know it's all my fault. Please wake up! I promise I won't be a bully any more! Obachan, please!" Maiko lay down across Fuko and cried on her aunt's chest.

Mother and nurse were now in motion to separate the child from the comatose aunt. They couldn't take any chances that Maiko might injure the defenseless body accidentally.

"No!" Maiko cried out as her mother tried to pull her away from the bed, "I want to stay with Obachan!"

While Kouko was pulling her unruly child away from the bed, the nurse was working to free the child's grasp from the patient's arm. With both of them concentrating on the child, neither of them noticed the health monitor showing that Fuko's vital functions were getting stronger. Finally, they freed Fuko from the little girl's tenacious grasp and Kouko pulled her daughter away with a lurch.

"No, please let me stay with Obachan!" Maiko cried.

"What has gotten into you?" Kouko was too stunned with her daughter's antics to even think about the best discipline tactic.

The nurse was putting Fuko back into her resting position and checking the body for any bruising that might be related to the child's rough handling. When she was done, she checked the health monitor and saw that Fuko's vital functions were still in decline… although, it seemed that they were higher than they had been before. The old nurse decided that she must be mistaken and wrote her strange feeling off to the recent excitement in the room.

"I'll be taking her home now." Kouko said apologetically. Then she asked, "Please call me and let me know if there is any change in her condition."

"Of course." the old nurse saw them out of the room before she hit the red button on the wall to alert the nurses station. Within five minutes, Fuko's body had been moved into the ICU.


	6. Chapter 6 - Volleyball Girls

**Tues** **day** **noon** **, Ju** **ly** **20** **–** **Train Station near the** **Hospital**

* * *

Kouko sat with Maiko's head in her lap. After all the tears, the little girl had finally wound down and was sleeping fitfully while her mother wore a stunned expression and wondered what to do. So far, she had let two trains pass by without moving from the bench where she and her daughter were resting. Even as she held her inconsolable child's hand, the turmoil in her mind kept her from taking any action… but that was because she was unsure of what action to take.

She no longer believed that her daughter was putting on an act. When she left the hospital, she carried in her arms a little girl that was truly distraught. Kouko had never seen that level of anguish on a child before. That in itself was troubling, but knowing that she was so upset about seeing her aunt… about seeing Fuko. Hearing the child claim that she missed seeing Fuko and… and even playing with her. But that was quite impossible since her daughter was not yet six years old, and Fuko had been in a coma for almost nine years.

 _So, does that mean my daughter is mentally ill, or is this just some variation of an imaginary friend? Should I take her home and have her get some rest, or take her back to the hospital?_ _Then I would have my sister and my daughter in the hospital and both of them… both of them would be in there because of me! Am I cursed? Is Yasuo next? What did I do to deserve such a fate? I just want… I just want my family to be healthy. Is there any help for someone like me? An exorcist? A priestess?_ _What should I do?_

"Kouko?" a friendly voice called out.

"Eh?" Kouko looked up to see Yukine and her delightful little boy, Yoichi in front of her. "Yukine! I'm so glad to see you. I… I don't know what to do..."

"Its okay," Yukine said as soothingly as she could. It was easy to see that Kouko was in distress about something. Yukine took Kouko's hands and sat down next to her on the bench while Yoichi walked up to Maiko's sleeping face in Kouko's lap.

"She's so pretty when she's not being mean." Yoichi reached out to Maiko's face and ran his finger across the salty trace of dried tears near the closed eyelids. "Why was she crying?"

"Oh Yoichi," Kouko ran her hand through Yoichi's hair and felt her own tears run now as she asked, "Does my daughter bully you too?"

"A little." Yoichi admitted, but he seemed to be unafraid to caress Maiko's sleeping face.

"Is that why you're upset?" Yukine asked the older mother. Finding out that your child is a bully can be devastating, but Yukine had always thought that Kouko was made of sterner stuff than someone who would fall apart over just this much.

"That's part of it." Kouko decided to tell Yukine everything. After all, they had been close friends ever since Youhei's call had saved Fuko's life. Fuko… it all seems to come back to Fuko. Kouko asked her friend, "Do you remember Fuko?"

 _Remember Fuko_

"Uh… yes." Yukine had to blink her eyes at the strange sensation. The last two words of Kouko's question seemed to resonate inside her soul for some reason. To be sure, she asked, "Fuko is your sister that's in the coma, right?"

"Yes, she's been in the coma for almost nine years. But Maiko-chan… she thinks… she really believes that she was playing with Fu-chan not too long ago. And… I just can't…" Kouko felt the tears coming to her eyes as she tried to say it. Now that she was saying it out loud, she realized how bad this sounded. Surely, something must be terribly wrong with her daughter. Unknown to Kouko and Yukine, the words and the sobbing had awoken the little girl in her mother's lap.

"I miss Obachan Fuko. I didn't mean to make her go away." Maiko said from her mother's lap. "I want her to come back."

Both of the mother's were about to ask the little girl what she meant when they were stunned by what little Yoichi then said.

"I miss her too. We never finished the picture we were coloring together. Do you know what happened to her?" Yoichi asked Maiko.

"Ah!" Maiko sat up quickly in startled happiness. _Does_ s _omeone else_ _besides me_ _remember_ _my_ _Obachan?_ She reached out and took Yoichi's hands as she asked him, "Do you remember Fuko?"

 _Remember Fuko_

"Uh-huh." Yoichi was a little scared at having his hands grabbed by Maiko, but he was even more surprised to see her happy. She was not usually happy about having to talk to, or even be around boys… or at least – little boys. "Fuko-chan is the best at coloring with Yasuo and me. Did… did something happen to her?"

Both mothers watched in stunned amazement as the two children talked about playing with someone they should never have been able to meet. Yukine was again feeling some kind of connection as if to a long lost memory when Maiko had asked about remembering Fuko.

"It's all my fault!" Maiko's happiness was over in an instant and she started crying again. Like her tears, her words came flooding out in answer to Yoichi's question, "There was a boy at school and he said something that made me so mad! And… I pushed him real hard, but he didn't get hurt. And Obachan Fuko was there and she saw me and she got real upset and said I was a bully. Then she said she would tell Okazaki-san and Okāsan and I tried to grab her but she was gone and I can't find her anywhere now."

"Maiko-chan…" Yoichi was no longer trying to pull away from Maiko-chan. He could tell how upset she was but it was different from all the other times. This time, Maiko was upset with herself.

"I didn't want Obachan to go away. I really didn't. Even if she likes to play with you and Yasuo more than me now… sometimes she still plays with me… sometimes." Maiko was a year older and six centimeters taller than Yoichi, but when she put her face on his shoulder to cry out her anguish, he put his hand on the back of her head like an older sibling, and let her sob.

"Maiko-chan," Yoichi asked softly, "Do you love Fuko too?

"Yes!" Maiko clutched at the back of his shirt and sobbed, "I want her to come back more than anything. I'm so sorry for making Obachan upset with me. I promise I'll be a good girl!"

Yukine saw it first and it brought a smile to her lips and hope into her heart. Then a startled Kouko noticed what at first seemed to be swirls of dust in the light. But the dust made odd shapes as if it was settling on something invisible and giving away the presence of a hidden thing. Kouko blinked when it looked like there was more to it than just dust. For some reason, she thought she could see brown eyes looking back at her. She had just about convinced herself that she was seeing things when the eyes changed focus and appeared to be looking at the kids.

"Ah!" Kouko cried out and started to reach for Maiko to pull her away, but Yukine took the older woman's hand and leaned into her.

"I think something wonderful is about to happen." Yukine quietly told Kouko.

"But..." Kouko started to protest but Yukine put her finger on Kouko's lips.

"I see them too… and they look familiar." Yukine smiled reassuringly. "I've seen them before."

"Huh?" Kouko wondered what kind of experiences Yukine had that a pair of disembodied brown eyes would be familiar to her. But she stopped. A feeling of déjà vu hit Kouko as she recalled seeing these eyes before… but when, and where?

Yoichi could see the eyes too and they made him feel warm inside. He had an idea from a little game he used to play with Yasuo. It wasn't so much a game as a trick that they loved to play on Obachan Fuko, but she didn't mind. When they played this game, it would always get Fuko so worked up she couldn't stand it and she would end up hugging both of them. Then all three of them would do the tickles. Yoichi was pretty sure Fuko liked this game as much as he and Yasuo did. Now, he would play the game with Maiko.

"I love Fuko more than you do." Yoichi said assertively.

"She's _my_ Obachan, so _I_ like her more." Maiko grumped. With her head down on Yoichi's shoulder, she couldn't see the soft brown eyes behind her.

"Ha! You only _like_ her, but I _love_ Fuko!" Yoichi picked back.

"Oh yeah," Maiko's face came off Yoichi's shoulder and her red, tear stained eyes looked at him as she claimed, "Well, I love her too!"

"Ha! You love her _too_ , but I love her _more_!" Yoichi could see that it was working. He could see the outline of Fuko's hair and the edge of her face.

"No you don't!" Maiko had never seen the two younger boys play this game before and Yoichi's stubbornness was making her angry. _If their mothers weren't here I would pop him a good one and… NO! That's exactly why Fuko is gone._ _I got angry and I hit and… Obachan said I was a bully and it made her real upset and sad._

"I love Fuko more than you!" Yoichi teased the bigger girl once more. He could see her balled up fists, which scared him, but he had a good feeling that he was doing the right thing.

"No, Yoichi! Don't say that! It's not true and it's making me angry!" Maiko started shouting and stomping, "I loved Obachan before you were born! I loved Obachan before Yasuo was born. She was my Obachan back then! She was always there when I needed her and she always played with me until…"

The shouting and stomping stopped. Maiko had become turned around in her anger and was now face to face with the trace-work Fuko. Her face paled as she remembered the eyes and the way her Obachan disappeared from the school courtyard.

Fuko was very happy. She had worried that her niece hated her but now she knew that was not so. Now that she knew Maiko would be okay, she let the huge wave of exhaustion take her to a well deserved rest. She felt like she had been running and trying to find something for a long, long time… and now she found it.

"Obachan!" Maiko screamed and charged into the dissipating dust when Fuko started to fade away. "NO! Don't leave me again Obachan, please! I promise I'll be good, I promise!" Her cries stopped when she felt compassionate arms wrap her into an embrace from behind.

"It's okay, Maiko-chan." Yukine told the sobbing girl, "Fu-chan was very tired but she couldn't rest because she was worried about you. But, you were a very good girl just now. You took away all her worries and you made her feel happy again. Now, she can get the rest she needs and you will be able to see her again."

"Really?" Maiko wanted to believe Yukine-san but, "I saw Obachan go away like that before and she didn't come back for so long."

"That was when she caught you trying to hurt someone, wasn't it?" Yukine asked in a fairly critical tone.

"Y...yes." Maiko admitted.

"That time, she was very sad because she saw something about her favorite niece, that she didn't want to believe." Yukine explained, "But this time she was happy."

"I'm glad she's getting to rest now. I think I'm tired too." Maiko admitted.

"Crying is hard work." Yukine observed and suggested, "Why don't we all go back to my place and lie down for a nice nap."

"Nap!" both Yoichi and Maiko shouted in dismay.

"Yukine… I can't believe you used _that_ word." Kouko said in disbelief as she covered her face with her hand.

.

 **Mon** **day** **late mor** **ning** **, Ju** **ly** **26** **–** **Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Yukine was amazed at the business they had been getting in the bakery. She knew from previous years working with Akio that the sales in the summer-time were often pretty light. With kids out of schools and many families taking vacations, Akio's normal plan was to scale back the baking to half-runs and only keep the shop open half the day. Essentially, as soon as the morning rush was over, the shop was dead by noon.

Kotomi's science project had added substantially to the traffic in the bakery, but she only did those experiments two of three times a month and there wasn't anything scheduled for today. Glancing at the calendar, Yukine verified that the next time the park would be filled with technicians and their strange looking trucks wouldn't be until the 10th of August, and it would start very early in the morning.

"What's going on?" Sanae asked as she entered the bakery through the step into the residence.

"Oh, you startled me!" Yukine said, "I forgot you were on summer break since I didn't see you here last week."

"Yes, even though the students are released, teachers still have a lot to do in the first week of summer break." Sanae said absently as she looked out the windows at the crowd of people in the park. Her curiosity got to her but she didn't have the energy to go exploring just yet, so she reached for an apron and told Yukine, "Why don't you go take a look. I can watch the store for a bit."

"Hmm…" Yukine felt a little guilty about shirking her responsibility to the bakery where she was supposed to be working, but then she had an idea. Filling a wicker picnic style basket with breakfast breads, she headed out the door. "I'll be out for a bit."

.

Yukine knew as soon as she took a few steps outside the bakery's door that whatever it was that was going on in the park, had nothing to do with Kotomi-chan's experiment. She wasn't even across the street yet when she heard a rousing cheer from deeper in the park. A few moments later there was another cheer.

"I really hope it's not a baseball game." Yukine said to herself, "Akio-san would be so sad if he missed a chance to play in a baseball game that was this exciting." She was walking quickly and wanted to find out what the cheering was all about, but she got stopped a few times when some of the people smelled the breads she was carrying and wanted to buy some from her.

Finally, she made it to the center of the crowd and found herself at the old volleyball court. Except it didn't look old any more. A crisp white net was strung between two gleaming poles that no longer looked rusty. Bright blue pads were attached to the poles and the court was covered in a fine yellow-white sand that glowed with the radiant sunlight. Four tall girls were on the court at the moment and a fifth was standing at the net in the judges position. At first Yukine thought it might be some High School girls getting some practice in… until she recognized one of them.

"Ah!" Yukine cried out as the girl on the far left made her serve. Yukine hadn't noticed anything at first except that all these girls were wearing sunglasses and bikini's… and there was neither a beach nor a pool in this park. She hadn't even been looking at the girl in the pink top and the blue-grey bottom, with her bluish black hair tied up in pigtails with white ribbon… until she jumped up in the air and served the ball to the other side like a rocket. In dark red lettering across the back of the bikini top were bold letters that spelled out _SUNOHARA_. _Mei?_

Yukine watched as a brown haired girl with a ponytail, wearing a yellow top and light gray bottoms dug in and put the ball up in the air for her partner. She didn't recognize the girl in the yellow top, but the partner in the dark brown hair and the bright blue bikini had to be Tomoya's cousin Yuki. The younger Okazaki jumped into the air and spiked the ball down towards the mid-court but the skinny girl with the short brown hair was too fast.

Mei's partner in a pastel green top and white bottom was able to get to the ball, but it sailed back out of the court and Mei had to move quickly to catch up with it. She knocked the ball in a long arc to her partner who was back on her feet and able to get in position just in time. She spiked the pall into the opposite court, but Yuki had seen it coming and was there to block the shot. The girl in green and white landed with a thunk on the sand next to the ball.

The sound of a whistle blew and Yukine saw that it was Tomoyo-chan in a black bikini that was playing the part of the referee… or judge… or whatever they called it in volleyball.

"Onee-chan!" Mei's voice called out over the applause. Not waiting for Yukine to come to her, Mai made a few long strides and was soon standing next to her somewhat shorter sister-in-law.

"Oof!" Mei had to hug back with one arm and hold onto the basket of breakfast breads with her other hand while the energetic young Mei gave her a hug that lifted her off the ground and swung her around in a circle.

"Careful Mei," Tomoyo said as she came padding up to the two, "your brother will be very upset with you if you break her."

The girls back at the volleyball court and several people in the crowd laughed at what they thought was a joke. But Tomoyo was only half kidding. Mei had some amazing upper body strength, which is uncommon in women. Tomoyo knew that she herself was renowned to be very strong, but most of her power was in her legs – the usual forte for females. The only other woman Tomoyo knew of that had comparative strength in her upper body was Fujibayashi Kyou… and that girl was an aberration on a number of levels.

"Okay." Mei answered Tomoyo as she gently set her sister-in-law back down.

"You two are sisters?" someone in the crowd asked.

"She's married to my Onii-chan!" Mei happily told the crowd.

"Oh, did you bring us some breakfast breads?" Yuki asked excitedly. She had really enjoyed the breakfast breads that her cousin Tomoya had brought home on several mornings after finishing his early run.

"Yuki-chan, look at what she's wearing." Mei told her new friend as she and the rest of the volleyball girls arrived to gather around Yukine. "That's the Furukawa Bakery apron. The bread in her basket is obviously for sale."

"Oh, silly me." Yuki's hopes were dashed when she realized that Mei was right. She had walked to the park from the Ichinose house and hadn't brought her purse with her since she thought they were just going to play a few sets of volleyball. But their playing had drawn quite an audience. Then Tomoyo-sama had shown up and there was no way she would want to leave now that her college room-mate and senpai was here. _But… I'm sooooo hungry!_ Yuki knew that if she didn't eat something soon, her stomach would be making embarrassingly loud noises.

"I have my purse with me. I'll buy the breads for the girls." Tomoyo said. She knew the look on Yuki's face from years of experience, and she also knew what would happen if _the pit monster_ wasn't fed in time.

"Thank you senpai!" Yuki gushed as she pointed at an enticing looking pastry in Yukine's basket.

"Thank you Tomoyo-chan," Mei said.

Thank you Sakagami-san." the other two girls said.

" _San_ huh?" Yuki chuckled, "After you see her play, you'll be calling her _Sama_."

"Eh?" the other girls responded to the challenge from Yuki. When Tomoyo had arrived, they had thought she would only be functioning as the referee since she was so much shorter than the rest of them. While it was true that Tomoyo, at 173 centimeters, was normally considered quite tall – she was short compared to Yuki, at 179 centimeters, who was the shortest of the girls that had been playing up till now.

"That sounded like a challenge, Yuki-chan." Mei said gaily, "Why don't you and Tomoyo-chan take on my friends for the next match, and I'll take a turn as the referee."

"Sounds good to me." the girl in the green top said.

"Oh, this will be fun!" Yuki was already getting excited at being able to play with her senpai again.

"I'll warn you that my friends were on the volleyball team at our college." Mei warned.

"Perfect! We were on the team at our school too." Yuki smiled.

Yukine worried that people might need to move back a bit… for their safety. She remembered, all too well, how devastating Tomoyo's athleticism was. She also remembered how badly mauled Youhei looked every time he challenged that girl. _Then again, she hadn't really hurt anyone since… the Crossroads Bar. Oh no! When she was done with the members of that gang, most of them were unconscious and none of them were able to move without help. I do hope she remembers to control herself._

The serve came to Yuki, who was playing in the back. It had come in a lot harder than she had expected and her pass sailed back over the net for the other team to set up an easy spike. However, the spike was intercepted by a diving Tomoyo and Yuki set the ball back to her near the net. The girl in the yellow top jumped to hit the ball before her shorter opponent could get to it. But, when she got to the apex of her leap, she was stunned to find Tomoyo already there and had spiked the ball over her head and into the sand behind her.

Mei and her friends, as well as many of the spectators, thought that the jump had been a fluke. The platinum blond had jumped her own height into the air to make that play. After a few more plays, no-one was saying _fluke_ any more. But Yuki seemed like she was disappointed.

"Aw, c'mon Tomoyo-sama. Stop warming up and show them something interesting!" Yuki begged her senpai.

"All right." Tomoyo acquiesced but her conscience prevented her from doing something that might injure the other girls in sport, so she waved them over to the net.

"What's up?" the girl in the green top asked.

"After your next serve, I want both of you to back away from the middle of the court. I don't want either of you to be hurt." Tomoyo said sincerely.

"You're kidding, right?" the girl in the yellow top asked.

"She's not kidding." Yuki was bouncing on her toes from excitement – as if she was a small girl about to see a spectacular fireworks display.

"Um… okay." the two girls looked at each other suspicious that this was some kind of joke or trick.

"Could I have your attention?" Yuki called out to the crowd of spectators, "Please watch this next move closely. You're about to see something that was only done once in Hokkaido, then it was banned for safety reasons."

… _banned for safety reasons._

The two girl's expressions of suspicion changed to disbelief. _What in the world?_

The ball came across the net fast and hard. Yuki had to dig for it, but she put it in the perfect position for her teammate. Facing away from the net, Tomoyo jumped into the air with her body arching backward. Her long platinum blond hair fanned out behind her in a mesmerizing mane as her body passed through the horizontal and was now upside-down with the ball falling toward her feet. At the right moment, her leg flashed out in a way that would have made Youhei cringe and the ball disappeared from sight.

 _PATHAAM!_

A crater of sand formed in the middle of the opposing court as the ball rebounded up and out of the volleyball area. High in the air, a metal fixture on one of the adjacent baseball diamond's light poles jangled on it's mountings and broken glass fell to the ground underneath it… along with the volleyball.

Those who were able to keep their eyes on Tomoyo saw her land on one foot, one knee, and one hand with her mane of silvery hair obscuring her face. When she stood, she tossed her head to put that mane back in place behind her and bowed to the applause from the spectators.

A work crew repaired the lights within the hour while the friendly match was still going on, but no-one really noticed. They were all enthralled with the girl's athletic display until the early afternoon when it was time to go find some lunch.

.

By the early afternoon, all the crowds were gone, or had moved on over to the baseball field where a game was going on. Mei and her friends had left to join up with some of their former classmates from school. Yukine had already closed up the bakery and left to pick up Yasuo and Maiko from the daycare where she had them enrolled. Yuki and Tomoyo were sitting under a tree near the volleyball court with six men wearing generic work overalls and carrying tool boxes.

When Kotomi, Tomoya, and Kyou arrived with the children and several baskets of drinks and lunches, Yuki took the opportunity to play with her young cousins.

"Obachan Yuki!" the young voices cried out when they saw Yuki under the tree.

"Kids!" she cried out as she swooped all three of them up in a hug. Yuki knew that technically, she was their second cousin… or something like that. But because of their differences in age, she got to wear the honorary title of Obachan by the little ones. That was certainly okay with Yuki. Ever since she found out that he existed, she had always wanted to be closer to her cousin. If the fates had allowed her to pick, she would have chosen to be his sister rather than his cousin. But this much was good too. She loved his three children and they were always excited to see their tall Aunt Yuki.

Knowing what was needed now, she gave Tomoyo a wink and led the kids away. They only went as far as the sand of the volleyball court to play, but that would be enough separation while the adults had a chance to talk.

.

"Your cousin is very useful." Kotomi said as she watched the tall girl with her three children tossing and rolling the ball around.

"Yes, she is." Tomoyo agreed. Sometimes she wondered if that was how Kotomi viewed everyone. In terms of how useful they were. But she reminded herself that it wasn't a good impression of Kotomi at all. Kyou had told her that, when Kotomi's barrier came down, she was an extremely passionate person. Tomoyo hadn't really seen that happen, but she believed Kyou. In her opinion, Kyou may have her own issues and quirks, but she had no reason to lie about something like that.

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan." Isamu said as he received a lunch box from the purple haired genius. Then, when he accepted a drink from Kyou, he said, "Thank you, Fujibayashi-san."

After the other men followed Isamu's example as they received their meals and drinks, Kyou became curious. She saw that Tomoyo was about to talk but there was something that she had to find out.

"Just a minute." Kyou addressed Isamu and asked, "What do you call her?"

"Sakagami-sama." Isamu wondered if he was in trouble for something and the other guys were wondering the same thing. Isamu asked the lavender haired girl, "Did I do something wrong?"

"I was just wondering why you call her Sakagami-sama, you call me Fujibayashi-san, and you call her Kotomi-chan?"

"Um well… ya see… There's been a couple of times when I tried calling her a bunch of ways, but the only one she'd answer to was Kotomi-chan." Isamu explained.

"Okay, I can see that." Kyou admitted, "But why is she Sakagami-sama?"

"Cuz she's do boss right now whats givin us our orders." Iwao spoke up.

"Does it bother you that they call me Sakagami-sama?" Tomoyo asked Kyou.

"No… I guess not." Kyou answered hesitantly.

"All right, first order of business: find something else to call me besides Sakagami-sama. As you all know, I've never been one for honorifics so I've never really cared for Sakagami-sama myself."

"I sez we should call her _The Boss_ , since she's… the boss." Iwao put in.

"But we're working for Kotomi-chan. Wouldn't that make her _The Boss_?" Isamu asked.

"Da way I sees it, Kotomi-chan might be Sakagami-sama's boss, but Sakagami-sama is our boss since she's da one what gives us our orders." Iwao answered.

"Besides, Kotomi-chan ain't never gonna reply if we call her _Boss_ anyways, right?" Takeshi put in.

"Okay, that's true." Isamu agreed. He turned to Tomoyo and told her, "From now on we'll call you _The Boss_."

"That's perfect." Kotomi said.

"It is?" Tomoyo had been about to smack her head and tell them to pick something else, when Kotomi spoke up.

"Absolutely." Kotomi said, "It is already clear to me that you are working in their best interests. Everything you are having them do is designed to increase their survivability in the exploration missions. You value them. They trust you. I cannot imagine a better person to be their boss, to be honest."

Checkmate. Tomoya smiled as he watched Kotomi win another argument before it ever had a chance to turn into a fight. He knew that Tomoyo was a formidable person, but this time she was up against himself, the mayor, Kobayashi-hakase, and Kotomi-chan. The rest of them had pushed her into this role, but it was Kotomi that would be the one to get her to accept it.

"Fine." Tomoyo said as she twisted her lips. She knew she had been played, but Kotomi was right. For what these guys were preparing themselves for, she couldn't think of irresponsibly abandoning them. "In that case, tell me what you did today."

Isamu and the boys proceeded to report everything they did. Before the girls had arrived at the park, they had already crisscrossed the area several times. In three groups of two, they had done their best at blending into the background as the ubiquitous and forgettable maintenance man, janitor, or repairman. To solidify that image, they had even been the ones to repair the light fixture that had been broken during the volleyball match.

"I was wondering about that." Tomoyo asked them, "Where did you find the ladder?"

"I picked the lock on the maintenance shed behind the baseball field." Takeshi said proudly.

"You…" Tomoyo was about to chastise him for it, but her orders today were to blend in and repairing a broken light fixture would be something expected of a guy that looks like a repairman. "You did well this time. But keep in mind that the principal goal is to avoid suspicion and _never_ interact with the authorities."

"You mean da cops." Iwao clarified.

"Yes. Interacting with the cops would be the worst." Tomoyo confirmed.

"Why would interacting with the cops be the worst?" Tomoya asked in deference to his best friend who wasn't here to defend himself.

"We don't know what kind of lives Iwao and his boys might have had in these alternate universes." Tomoyo explained, "If it hadn't been for Youhei's intervention after the death of Kazuto, these guys might have been killed in the ensuing gang warfare… or they may be the killers of others. Their criminal misadventures might have gotten worse and they might be wanted for crimes like arson, kidnapping, or even murder. We can't run the possibility that a local cop will identify one of them from a wanted poster and try to make an arrest."

"But if they explained…" Tomoya cut himself off. Once he though about it, he couldn't imagine any cop buying a story that they got the wrong guy because he's really just an explorer from a parallel universe. "I see."

"So we're all agreed that cops are the worst. Right?" Takeshi said with a sly smile.

"Dealing with cops in a parallel universe is the worst." Tomoyo corrected, "But dealing with a cop here is okay – because you are all reformed upstanding citizens of the community. Right… Takeshi?"

"Yeah… right boss!" Takeshi agreed quickly.

"Good, so tomorrow I want you to try…" Tomoyo gave them their marching orders.

Kyou felt a little upstaged that Tomoyo was getting to command the exploration team, but she had to admit that it seemed to be a natural fit. When she saw the satisfied look on Kotomi's face, she had to wonder if this was something that had just worked itself out, or had she planned for Tomoyo to have this role all along. Of course, asking that question might open a whole new can of worms. The discussion might move to the role Kotomi has planned for the lavender haired co-mom. And Kyou wasn't sure she wanted to hear those plans just yet.

.

 **Satur** **day** **evening** **, Ju** **ly** **31** **–** **Ichinose Residence**

* * *

"Kampai!" Tomoya called out to the room.

"Kampai! The room called back, although everyone had turned to Sunohara Youhei as they cheered and raised their glasses.

"So, is it Inspector Sunohara or Detective Sunohara now?" Kobayashi Jun asked the proud young man.

"Detective Sunohara," Youhei explained, "Inspectors are in charge of police officers, but I'll be doing investigative work."

"What kind of investigative work?" Kyou asked. As a fan of television crime dramas she was somewhat familiar with the kind of things a Detective might be involved with.

"I'm really not sure yet." Youhei looked a little sheepish for having such a lame answer and explained, "I'm scheduled to go off to Osaka for training for six weeks and then Tokyo for another six weeks. It's like going back to school again. But, according to some of the guys I'll be working with, I'll probably start by working with the cold case files for a while."

"That sounds fascinating to me, Youhei-kun." Kotomi said, "But I feel like it would be a waste of your talent."

"Oh?" Yukine asked. She was very proud of her husband for promoting to Detective so quickly and personally thought he would do well in any capacity. If anyone else had said something negative, she would have been a little miffed, but Kotomi wasn't the kind of person to say anything just for the purpose of insulting someone. "Why is that, Kotomi-chan?"

"Like Kyou-chan and Tomoya-kun, I see Youhei-kun as someone who is at their best when they are interacting with other people." Kotomi explained her reasoning, "I am not certain of all that is required for reviewing cold case files, but to me it sounds more like reviewing old reports and evidence, and using analysis to find something new."

"I think she's right." Tomoyo-chan observed, "All those times he was useful in High School at figuring out some petty act was when he was on the prowl and talking to people."

"I think so too." Tomoya stroked his chin as if he were giving the subject deep consideration, "When it comes to analytical skills… well, let's just say that anyone who would believe that they had slept through the apocalypse and that I was a cyborg from the future – that person probably shouldn't be relied on to think too much."

"Tomoya! I was half asleep when that happened, and you promised you would never bring that up!" Youhei shouted.

"I'm sorry, this is a hologram projection of Tomoya and the projection has no recollection of that promise."

Youhei gave Tomoya a calculating look. Reaching down to the table, he picked up a napkin, wadded it up, and threw it at Tomoya. After watching it bounce off the taller friend's chest, he scoffed, "You're no hologram. I'm not falling for that twice."

The room filled with laughter at the friend's antics. The kids laughed at the silliness of the two grown men. All the adults felt a wave of nostalgia recalling all the clowning around that Tomoya and Youhei did back in High School.

"I'm so proud of you, Onii-chan!" Mei giggled, "To think that my little brother is now a Detective is super amazing!"

"Hey!" Youhei's smile from his sister's bragging about him turned into a frown, "I'm not your little brother!"

"Oh?" Mei bent at the waist from her 180 centimeter height down to his 168 centimeters and said, "I didn't say younger brother. But as far as being my _little_ brother goes…"

"Okay okay okay!" Youhei put his hand over his eyes and groaned, "I just don't like you calling me your _little brother_ , that's all."

"Mei," Tomoyo observed, "It sounds like your brother is being _short_ with you."

"Short?" Youhei gawked.

"We shouldn't pick on Youhei today." Tomoya sounded a little too serious as he told everyone, "For him to become a Detective took a lot of hard work… and a _small_ miracle."

"Small?" Youhei gaped.

"I have to admit to a _tiny_ bit of doubt that he would make it." Kyou added with a smile that was almost a sneer.

"Tiny? Am I really so short? Or… did I just associate with a bunch of people that grew too tall?" Youhei's face looked as if all the color was draining out until he felt a warmth on his side and arms wrapping around his chest.

"It doesn't matter how tall anyone else is." Yukine said quietly into his ear as she hugged her husband close, "You'll always be a big man to me."

"To Yukine!" Youhei cried out as he raised his glass again, "The best wife I could ever have hoped for!"

"Kampai!" the room echoed in agreement.


	7. Chapter 7 - Kyou-less

**Satur** **day** **morning** **,** **August 7** **–** **Central Street Market**

* * *

Yukine walked through the old market with a wistful smile as if she were fondly remembering a place that wasn't gone yet. That was how it felt too. The announcement had been made that one of those huge gleaming supermarkets was going to be built practically across the street and everyone knew what that meant. Sure, the Supermarket's prices would be a little lower and it wouldn't be as crowded, but it would be entirely lacking in personality.

"Sunohara-sama!" a friendly voice called out from the flower shop, "Where is Yoichi-kun? I always enjoy seeing that darling little boy of yours."

"Good morning!" Yukine walked over to the elderly woman who had run the little flower shop since Yukine had been a little girl. "I left him with some friends to play. Although, if he knew that I was coming to the flower shop, he might have insisted on coming with me."

"It's a shame he didn't come with you this time. I got something in that I know he would like." the old woman held up an overflowing basket of blue and purple hydrangeas. "He used to only look at the bright red flowers, but recently he's been interested in anything that is blue and purple. I wonder why?"

"Hmmmm, I wonder." Yukine thought she had a pretty good idea. The Okazaki girl, Michiko, had her father's blue eyes and her mother's purple hair. She had been a shy little thing when they had first arrived. But that hadn't been a problem for Yoichi; her son had been able to cut through all of the little girl's fears from the first moment they met. Now, the two of them were nearly inseparable. They weren't even five years old yet and no-one could foretell if their friendship would last… or if it would develop into something more in years to come. But Yukine secretly hoped that it would. The idea of her son marrying the Okazaki's daughter was a fairy tale she hoped could come true some day. The thought of it did make her smile.

"It looks like you have some idea why." the old woman prodded with a knowing look in here eyes.

"I'm pretty sure it's the usual reason." Yukine told the shop keeper.

"Oh my! Interested in a girl at his age? My granddaughter didn't even know what a boy was, until she got to middle-school." the old woman laughed.

"Obāsan!" a voice from back inside the flower shop cried out in exasperation.

"Hee hee hee." the old woman laughed at her grand-daughter's ire and embarrassment.

"I think I'll take the hydrangeas." Yukine smiled and started to walk into the store.

"Oh, I can take care of that for you." the old woman offered. "It's just nine hundred yen… do you need a receipt?"

"Just nine hundred?" Yukine was surprised, "It seems like an awfully nice arrangement for only that much."

"Well, they were originally ordered for a wedding and… well… the wedding got canceled and so they're on sale, you see?" the old shopkeeper explained.

"All right, although it sounds like you're hiding something… that is a pretty good price for such lovely flowers." Yukine handed over the money and took the basket of flowers.

"Thank you, please come again!" the grandmother and granddaughter both said at the same time as Yukine turned to leave.

.

"Is she gone yet?" a stocky man in work overalls said from his hiding place inside the flower shop.

"Yes, she's gone now." the granddaughter said from behind the register at the flower shop's arrangement counter.

"I thought she liked the yellow flowers. Do we need to get different flowers for her now?" another stocky man in work overalls said as he crawled out from his hiding place under a table full of brightly colored foliage.

"No, you're fine son." the grandmother assured him, "Yukine loves the little yellow flowers the most. She got the hydrangeas for her little boy."

"What's this all about anyways?" the granddaughter demanded. "Who are you guys and why are you buying flowers for somebody else's wife?" She didn't personally know the Sunohara family, but she clearly saw a wedding ring on Yukine's finger.

"Today is Yukine-sama's birthday and were picking up the flowers for her birthday party."

"Now that's enough questions from you." the grandmother told the teenage girl, "You just ring them up and give them a discount since it's Yukine-chan's birthday."

"Okaaaay!" it was clear that the teenager wasn't satisfied with the workmen's answer and also wasn't thrilled with the discount that her grandmother gave away much to freely. But she did as she was told.

"Thank you, very much." both of the workmen opened their tool boxes to get to their wallets.

As the teenager rang up the charges, she gazed into the open toolboxes and saw something odd. As dumb as these guys sounded, she had expected them to be carrying nothing more than boxes full of hammers. But what she saw was a lot more complex than a hammer. There was a large and very rugged looking thing that looked like an old style cell phone. There were also several electronic gadgets that had a home-made or hobbyist look to them. She was about to ask them what the weird looking devices were for when they hurriedly gathered their things and left.

.

Yukine had for some time felt that she was being watched, or even followed. At first, it was just a strange feeling. The kind that you get when someone is idly staring at you. You see them and they suddenly catch themselves and look away – and then it is over. But Yukine had looked around several times and found no-one staring her way. Rather than dispel the uncomfortable feeling, Yukine was more certain that she was being watched with every passing minute. To put this to rest, she took an unexpected turn down a seldom trod aisle of luggage and leather goods and waited.

As before, the sensation was back. Within a minute or two of putting herself in the secluded area, she felt the presence yet again. And yet again, when she turned around there was no-one to be seen. Either this was the world's greatest stalker, or…

"Fuko?" Yukine called out to the emptiness and suddenly, it wasn't so empty. As soon as the name left her mouth, the short girl was there. Long brown hair tied in a bright blue bow. The Yellow jacketed winter uniform from Yukine's old high school. But Yukine couldn't see the eyes. Fuko's face was downcast and she was fidgeting.

"Fuko is sorry for following you around. Fuko just didn't want to be alone… Are you… are you upset with Fuko?" Yukine's short ikiryo friend asked in a quavering voice.

"Fu-chan…" Yukine answered by wrapping the short girl into a close hug and stroking her hair. "Don't you ever think that I don't want to see you again. Even if I am upset with you, it doesn't mean that we aren't friends anymore. I love you like a younger sister, you know?"

"No…" Fuko stayed in the comfortable hug with her close friend, but pouted, "Fuko is older than Yu-chan. So, Fuko should be the Onee-chan."

"Oh no." Yukine dismissed the short girl's claim, "We both know that you are the ikiryo of a girl that went into a coma on her first day of high school. So, until the girl in the hospital wakes up, you will always be fifteen, but I will keep getting older. Someday, my son may even think of you as his imouto-chan."

"Ah!" the ikiryo gasped, "Fuko is losing a race that Fuko didn't even know she was running. Does that mean that you are losing respect in Fuko as a mature woman?"

"I don't know that I've ever thought of you as a mature woman." Yukine answered honestly.

"Ack! That wounds Fuko to the core!" the short girl paled.

"Fu-chan," Yukine held her friend tightly, "the last time I asked you to be more mature, you disappeared for almost a month. I _do_ want you to mature. I want you to be more responsible and more reliable. But it doesn't have to happen all at once. Take your time and work at it little by little. I promise I will be patient with you."

"Hah… you really do sound like an Onee-chan." Fuko admitted.

.

 **Sun** **day** **afternoon** **,** **August** **1** **5** **–** **Ichinose** **Hous** **e**

* * *

Yukine's birthday party had been nice, but it had also been quick. As a special gift, many arrangements had been made without Yukine's or even Youhei's knowledge. With Tomoyo's help, they had managed to arrange for Youhei to get a few days off from work so that he could take Yukine on a short vacation to a mountain Onsen resort a few hours away.

Contrary to being upset at getting left behind, little Yoichi was thrilled to be able to stay over with the Okazaki family. When Youhei and Yukine came back from their relaxing trip, they were entertained with dozens of pictures of her son playing with the Okazaki children and occasionally Kouko and Yusuke's children as well. But the pictures she treasured most were the ones of her little Yoichi holding hands with Michiko.

From the sly smile on her lavender haired friend's face, Yukine discovered that Kyou-chan was a co-conspirator in the hopes for Yoichi and Michiko's future together. Kyou carefully handed a picture to Yukine under the table like a couple of school girls passing notes in class. Yukine's trademark calm was momentarily lost when she glanced at the picture and saw a heartwarming shot of little purple haired Michiko asleep on a couch with her head in Yoichi's lap. Her son wore a contented smile while he was brushing a few strands of hair out of the sleeping girl's face. The whole scene was highlighted by the last rays of the setting sun in the background.

Kyou had let her keep that picture and Yukine thought of it as the most treasured of all of her birthday presents.

.

But now it was time to pay the piper… Or at least, that was how Youhei was putting it. He was carrying on, acting like it was a huge imposition to watch the Okazaki children for a while. Only ten days after Yukine's birthday would be August 17th, the seventh anniversary of Tomoya and Kotomi's wedding. Since Tomoya and Kotomi had never had a proper honeymoon, Kobayashi had prepared a very nice anniversary gift for them. But, to make the anniversary gift work, Kobayashi had just mentioned that Sunohara-san would be needed to help watch the Okazaki children for a week.

"So that's it then?" Youhei was fishing for sympathy as he pointedly asked Tomoya, "Just because we got a few nights away at a mountain onsen, we have to watch your kids for a week?"

"Hey, I don't know anything about this deal." Tomoya threw up his hands.

"Not to fear, Youhei-san!" Kobayashi-hakase laughed, "Tomoyo-chan has already told me that your job is far too important for you to take another vacation right on the heels of the last one. You won't be involved in this at all."

"Oh… well, I guess…" Youhei was trying to figure out where the misunderstanding occurred. He also had the distinct feeling that he had just been left out of something fun.

"The _Sunohara-san_ I was referring to is your wife. Allow me to explain," the old gentleman outlined the plan. "While Tomoya-kun and Kotomi-chan go on their anniversary trip, Yukine-chan, Kouko-chan, Kyou-chan, and Yuki-chan, will be taking all six of the children on a vacation to Hokkaido where they will visit wonderful places like the Asahiyama Zoo, the Shiroi Koibito Park and Chocolate Factory, and Jigokudani, and… the Okazaki farm. So you see, you won't be inconvenienced at all."

 _Jigokudani? I've always wanted to see Jigokudani!_ Youhei was about to grumble about being left out while his wife and child got to go have fun, when another voice objected.

"No..." Kotomi's eyes were opened wide as if in fear. Her shaking hands held onto Kyou's arm as if it was a lifeline that was in danger of slipping away. "Kyou-chan has to come with us."

"Kotomi-chan," Kouko offered, "this is supposed to be the anniversary present for you and Tomoya-kun."

"I know that, but… Kyou-chan was with me before I got married. She stood beside me at my wedding, and she has been with me ever since. I don't know if I can… if I can…" Kotomi was starting to panic at the though of being separated from Kyou for such a long time. Surely, they had been apart before – but never for so long as this.

"Kotomi-chan." Kyou held Kotomi's hands as she looked into the purple eyes of her dearest friend.

"Kyou-chan?" Kotomi automatically responded to the conversation handshake. She looked up into Kyou's steady gaze and took some comfort from the stability she found there.

"Do you remember what you told me was the principal reason for me to be a part of your family?" Kyou asked.

 _Because I love you. No, I never told you that. Of course…_ "It is because I don't want the children to grow up without parents when… in case… something happens." Kotomi said haltingly.

"Use your own logic now." Kyou said softly, "If that is the principal reason, does it make any sense for the three of us to go off together for a week and send the children away without any of us with them?"

Kotomi thought fast and hard. There had to be a solution where the three of them did not have to take different paths. She knew that eventually the day would come when… Kotomi's calculations ended, unfinished. Her scrambling for a justification dropped. It almost felt like her heart had stopped. _Soon, the time will come when I will have to make a_ _choice that is currently_ _impossible_ _f_ _o_ _r m_ _e. The only way I will be able to choose is if I know that Kyou-chan is there_ _for…_ _the children_ _._ _But I need to be ready too. This is… something… I must do._

Checkmate.

"I agree, Kyou-chan." Kotomi bowed her head onto Kyou's shoulder.

Kyou was surprised that she had won the argument, but Tomoya was thunderstruck. His jaw hung slack from his face and he stared at Kyou in shock.

"Did… did you just win a debate with Kotomi-chan?" Yuki gaped at what she saw too.

"No, I cheated." Kyou gave a wan smile back to Yuki, "I handed both sides of the argument over to her and let her come to the only logical conclusion."

"Couldn't she have come to any conclusion she wanted then?" Kouko asked.

"Not Kotomi," Kyou almost felt sorry for what she just did to her friend, but the purple haired genius needed to have a taste of what it felt like to loose that way. "Kotomi is far too honest, and sincere to avoid the logical outcome."

Tomoya was still impressed. Kyou had accomplished what he never had, and she had used a tactic that Kotomi was famous for. She had used her opponents own firmly held beliefs against them. Tomoya was more impressed with Kyou now than he had been when he went to her Masters Confirmation Ceremony at the university.

"Are all of you okay with this?" Tomoya asked the other girls in the room.

"Well..." Yuki started to say something but suddenly looked at the floor.

"Um…" Kouko looked like she was trying to find the right words.

"We were in on this from the beginning." Yukine replied with a smile.

"Well then, I guess it's settled." Tomoya said as he pulled Kotomi into his arms and mischievously asked her, "It looks like it will be just you and me, on a far away tropical island, vacationing with only each other, for a whole week. Whatever shall we do?"

"I imagine that we will visit the tourist places, play on the beach, and make love." Kotomi answered his question.

"Kotomi!" all the girls in the room cried out as Tomoya smacked his face with the palm of his hand.

"What?" Kotomi seemed completely mystified by the reaction from all of her friends and asked them, "Isn't that what adults do on a vacation?"

All of them looked at her in stunned silence. They couldn't argue that she was right, but still… _Kotomi!_

.

 **Monday** **afternoon** **,** **August** **1** **6** **–** **Nishinoomote** **Harbor,** **Tanegashima**

* * *

The Hydrofoil from Kagoshima had been a blast. Or at least Tomoya thought so. Kotomi probably had a different opinion but she wasn't talking much at the moment. Sitting on the bench outside the ferry office, she had her head down between her knees and she was trying to take long deep breaths and calm down. Tomoya rubbed her back and sympathized with her as he thought back to how the day had gone so far.

It almost seemed like her Guardian, Kobayashi-hakase, had arranged the travel plans to be a personal test of courage for Kotomi. The first leg of the journey shouldn't have been that difficult for his wife. Taking the train into Tokyo was something she had done many times before. The problem was in the timing. The tickets they were handed meant that they had to journey into Tokyo, on a Monday… in the morning… during the most congested part of the day. Kotomi had been crushed by the throng of people all around her. Before the train was so full it needed pushers to get everyone in the door, she was already on the verge of hyperventilating. By the time they got to Tokyo's Haneda airport, she was a mess.

As if getting her calmed down after the crowded train ride wasn't enough of a challenge, Tomoya had to get his wife calmed down enough to get on an airplane. _An airplane!_ Kotomi begged Tomoya to change the plans and take the Shinkansen down to Kagoshima, but the airline tickets were non-refundable and the train wouldn't get them there in time for their next connection. Dreading every step, Kotomi let Tomoya guide her into the airport, through the ticket scan, and onto the airplane. Fortunately, the flight from Tokyo to Kagoshima wasn't a long one and Tomoya had most of the feeling back in his arm back by the time their bus arrived.

The bus ride wasn't too bad and before they knew it, they were at the ferry terminal in Kagoshima. At first, Tomoya didn't notice anything special about the ferry boat. It looked like it was designed for speed, but he had learned some time ago that how something looks and how it performs are often two entirely different things. It wasn't when the ferry pulled away from the docks or even when they cleared the harbor barrier. But a few minutes later he felt the engine ramp up and a tremor go through the vessel that meant something exciting was about to happen.

Kotomi latched onto Tomoya's arm in fear that something was wrong, but Tomoya had a smile on his face that reminded her of their trips to Astroworld and how he looked when he got to ride one of the big roller-coasters. She rarely ever rode those rides with him. There was too much vibration… too much noise… just too much! The only saving grace those rides had was that they were over in two or three minutes. But this ride…

The massive hull of the ferry rose up out of the water to run on just the stubby hydrofoil wings as it sped toward it's destination at an outlandish eighty kilometers per hour. A display panel in the passenger area showed a map of where they were and how much time it would be until they reached their destination. When Kotomi saw that this ride wouldn't be over for an hour an a half, she almost cried.

.

But that had been almost two hours ago and her feet were safely on dry land and nothing was moving any more. She felt calm enough to sit up now but the feel of Tomoya-kun's hand rubbing her back was wonderful. If only the air didn't have that foul harbor odor of machine oil and dead fish, she could truly relax like this.

"Are you Okazaki-san?" She heard a man's voice speaking with Tomoya.

"We are." Tomoya said without getting up. It was pretty obvious that his wife wasn't feeling well, so there shouldn't be any perceived offense.

"Ah, your things were taken ahead but I've got your ride right over here." the man explained.

Kotomi wondered why their things were taken ahead. _Wouldn't it have made sense to have us take our luggage with us in the same vehicle?_ Kotomi looked up and saw a nondescript white passenger van in the parking lot behind the man. _A vehicle like that could easily have taken us and all our luggage to the bungalow where we will be staying. How odd._

"Kotomi-chan, are you okay to get up now?" Tomoya asked her cautiously.

"I'm much better now, Tomoya-kun. I should be able to handle this much." Kotomi looked forward to sitting back in the comfort of the passenger van's seat and letting Tomoya drive her the rest of the way to their destination in peaceful comfort. She held her Tomoya-kun's hand and they walked together into the parking lot.

Strangely, the man walked past the white passenger van to another vehicle on the other side of it. To Kotomi's horror and utter dismay, they stopped walking when they got to… a motorcycle.

To Tomoya it was like another birthday present. The big bright red motorcycle gleamed in the summer sun and just begged to be taken out on the road. Like the bike he had ridden in college, this one had the built in saddlebags, but it also had the trunk and padded backrest for the passenger.

"You're qualified to drive this, right?" the man sounded doubtful as he held out a clipboard for Tomoya to sign.

"She's not, but I am." Tomoya gave the bike a quick glance and confidently told the man, "I rode something like it for about six years, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"I've never seen a motorcycle this big before. What did you ride that was like this?" the man asked dubiously.

"A Road King." Tomoya smiled when he caught the man's surprise.

"Well then, I guess you got this." he handed the keys over to Tomoya and told him,  
"Your destination is already set up in the GPS. Helmets are hanging from the back. Boots and gloves are in the saddlebags."

Kotomi had a sudden urge to call out to the man as he turned toward the nice big white van… but he walked around it and headed into the Ferry terminal building.

"Here," Tomoya held out the smaller set of boots to his wife, "You've seen Kyou and me get ready to ride before, right?"

"Um… yes." Kotomi didn't want Tomoya to know how terrified she was to get on one of those things, but she had an idea that he had figured it out already anyway.

 _This isn't so bad. I rode in an airplane and a hydrofoil today. I will not be scared of this motorcycle._ Kotomi told herself as she watched Tomoya lock her shoes into the saddlebags and check her helmet to make sure it was on correctly. _I will not be scared of this motorcycle. Tomoya is driving it and he has lots of experience so I should be comforted. I wi_ _ll not be scared of this motorcycle._

"I will get on first and hold the bike steady for you to get on." Tomoya told her as he indicated the passenger running board, "When you do, you will step here, grab my shoulders, and throw your leg over to the other side. Your feet will rest on these pads and you can hold onto me as tight as you want."

"As tight as I want?" Kotomi gasped out the words. She hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath until now.

"As tight as you want." Tomoya confirmed with a smile.

"I… I might hurt you." Kotomi admitted as she bit her lip. It was too late to try and hide her fear from him. She could tell that he already knew everything that she was going through.

"You won't hurt me, and..." Tomoya lifted her chin and kissed her on the lips, "I have been looking forward to this for a long, long time."

"You… you have?" Kotomi was stunned. She knew he had asked her to ride with him many times in the past, but she had always refused. There had always been an alternative or some kind of reason why she wasn't able to ride with him before. But there were no more excuses now. Tomoya was finally going to get his wish.

Without another word, he climbed aboard the bike and started up the powerful engine.

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

Tomoya looked so strong as he sat there with his hands on the grips. Once he was satisfied with everything, he looked over his shoulder to Kotomi and gave her the nod to climb on as well.

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

Kotomi put her foot on the pad he had indicated. She grabbed him by the shoulders and… before she knew it, she was astride the beast and still holding onto Tomoya's shoulders. She heard Tomoya put the transmission in gear, and rev the engine.

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

The big bike moved forward and Kotomi squealed over the noise of the engine. Her thighs clamped down on Tomoya's hips and her arms wrapped around his broad back in a fierce hug.

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

The noise from the tires went from a gravelly crunch to a smooth nothingness as they left the parking lot and got on the paved road. Kotomi was just starting to loosen up when they got to their first turn. She felt the bike leaning over and panicked that they might fall. Her grip on Tomoya became tighter and she closed her eyes in anticipation of her soft body meeting the hard road.

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

 _I will not be scared of this motorcycle!_

But the bike leveled out again and Tomoya was deftly accelerating down the island road. _Huh? But we were falling over? I felt it!_ With wonderment replacing fear, Kotomi's prodigious brain sprang into action. _Of course, we were also in forward motion!_ _With the inertia of the rider, the passenger, and the bike itself – a successful turn would have required…_ Kotomi's mind was soon ablaze with calculating values of inertia, determining roll moments and gyroscopic forces.

Tomoya cold feel a difference as well. Kotomi was no longer shaking. At first, she was deathly still but soon she started moving on her own. Her legs squeezed and rubbed against his hips. Her breasts were pressed into his back. Her arms started to wander up and down his chest.

 _Whoah, I w_ _ish I knew_ _what kind of sexy things Kotomi is thinking of_ _right_ _now!_ Tomoya erroneously wondered.

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **1** **7** **–** **Kobayashi Vacation House on** **Tanegashima**

* * *

Kotomi had been exhausted when they arrived at the Vacation House. Tomoya had helped her off the motorcycle and had carried her into the house the previous evening. She had been so out-of-it, that she didn't even wake up when he took off her clothes and covered her with a soft sheet.

Tomoya hadn't been as tired though, and had wandered around the place a bit. Kobayashi had called this place a bungalow. To Tomoya, that word conjured images of a mud walled hovel with thatched palm fronds for a roof. But that wasn't this place at all. He wondered if Kobayashi remembered visiting his dad and seeing first hand, the house Tomoya had grown up in… This 'bungalow' was nicer and bigger than his childhood house had been. Tomoya decided not to be offended by it. After all, to Kobayashi the word 'bungalow' might mean something completely different – like 'home away from home.'

The bathroom was modern, so this place was either new or had been updated. The kitchen was nice, but there wasn't any food in it. The back door was a big sliding glass thing that opened half the room to the the breeze sweeping in from the Pacific ocean. There was a deck on the other side of that door that had a few chairs around a table, a hot bath sunken into the deck, and the most incredible view.

It had been impossible to see this view from the front of the house, although the sound of waves and the smell of the salt air did give it away a bit. But this house backed up to a cliff directly above the sound of the threshing waters down below. Even in the gathering darkness, he could see that there was a beach down there and he hoped it would look as good as it sounded from the cliff top.

Tomoya hadn't thought he would be able to sleep at all from the excitement and anticipation of seeing this place in it's sunlit glory. But the stresses of the day weighed heavier on him than he had imagined and he was soon asleep with Kotomi at his side.

.

Both Tomoya and Kotomi slept fitfully that night. Kotomi ended up cuddled up to Tomoya's side as she always did, but something was missing. Her hand searched for the hand of the other. As she did every night, Kotomi wanted to reach out and touch the warm and ever-present companion that was always just on the other side of Tomoya's chest from her. But the pale light of the half-moon outside the window illuminated more than the fact that she was in an unfamiliar bedroom.

There was no Kyou. No lavender haired beauty to smile in her sleep when Kotomi took her hand. No friendly purple eyes to wink at her in the darkness to let her know that everything was okay and she could go back to sleep.

Her guardian thought he was doing the best he could for them with this gift. He had made sure that Kotomi had Tomoya all to herself for once. But, this was not something she would have chosen for herself. She knew she was being selfish and that Kyou may not feel the same way… indeed, even Tomoya might not feel the same way. The feeling of guilt began to build as she wondered if she was dragging both of them along – against their wills, into this relationship she had forged.

But her feelings were clear to her. She loved them both and didn't like to be separated from them, even for a while. When she was… when she had to be away from them for a while, she missed them with the same sadness and intensity that she still missed her parents. Some day…

Tomoya awoke feeling something warm and wet on his chest where Kotomi's head lay. He could feel her body jerk in surprise, when he started to sooth her by stroking her hair.

"Tomoya-kun?" Kotomi wanted to explain why she was crying but he already knew.

"Kotomi-chan, it's okay. I know." Tomoya said softly, "I miss her too."

Knowing they both felt the same way, and that they would soon be reunited with their missing partner was enough. Soon they were both able to retreat from their sorrow back into the escape of dreams.

.

Tomoya found himself suddenly wide awake when the first rays of light shone through the window. And with the morning came an incredible eagerness and excitement. Letting Kotomi sleep in, he had to see if the view from the deck was as incredible as what his imagination had promised. Quickly throwing on a robe, he ran out the big sliding glass door to the deck rails and let it all hit him at once.

From the edge of the deck where he was standing he could now see that off to the right, a wooden stair descended the cliff face to a sandy beach below. That beach curved like a quarter moon around the base of the cliff and was surrounded by great rocks and trees everywhere. The water that gently lapped the beach was the clearest blue water he had ever seen. It was certainly nothing like the muddy looking water from the Gulf of Mexico, that he had seen back when he was in college. No, this water was completely different. From where he stood, high atop the cliff, he could see fish swimming amongst the few rocks in the water down below. Gazing out from that beautiful beach, but not too far away, were the whitecaps where the waves were breaking into foam, and beyond that… Beyond those whitecaps was the deep blue of the Pacific ocean that sparkled in the morning sun like a flowing blue gemstone with billions of facets to reflect the light of the sun.

The whole place was bordered in a cove with nothing but rocks, trees, and the clear ocean water all the way out to the horizon. Basking in the glorious isolation of this incredible place, Tomoya threw his arms wide open and embraced the fresh sea air that came to meet him on this wonderful morning.

 _Kotomi!_ He suddenly decided that she could sleep later. This sight was something she had to see with him. It was something she had to see _now!_

Rushing back into the house, he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a girl scream.

"EEEEEEEK! What are you doing in Koba-san's house?" demanded a frightened young girl. Wearing cut-off shorts and a festively colored t-shirt, she was defensively standing at the entrance to the kitchen and clutching a spatula as if it were a weapon to be feared.

"Err… If you're talking about Kobayashi-hakase, he is letting us stay at his house for our anniversary. But more importantly, why did you come into this house and start threating people with… a spatula?" Now that his eyes had adjusted to the light inside the house, Tomoya had a better look at the girl. She was short, black haired, and well tanned. She seemed athletic and he wondered if she might be on her high school's swim or track team.

"Huh?" the girl looked at what was in her hands and seemed shocked that there was a spatula there. "I… I was just surprised when you came running in all naked like that!"

"I'm not naked. I'm wearing a robe." Tomoya challenged.

"It's open!" the girl cried out and turned her face away from the full frontal Tomoya in front of her.

"I heard a girl scream!" Kotomi came running into the room holding a hairbrush in front of her… but not wearing even an open robe.

"Ah! You're naked too!" the girl cried out and turned her face away from the new arrival in the room.

"For the record, she is naked. I am wearing a robe." Tomoya droned as he retied his robe so as to be less offensive to the scandalized trespasser.

"Ah!" Kotomi ran back into the bedroom and re-appeared a moment later tying a robe around her.

"And…" Tomoya said with confidence, "you still haven't answered the question of why you are here."

"Ah… um… my mom and I take care of Koba-san's house and we take care of him when he come out here." the girl sounded less frightened but still clung to her spatula.

"Are you relatives of his?" Tomoya asked.

"No, he pays us to look after things." she answered. "So you… you know him too?"

"He is my Godfather and guardian." Kotomi replied.

"And... you are still threatening us with that dangerous… spatula." Tomoya tried to sound serious, but it was difficult.

"Oh, sorry. It's just that… I've never met a gangster before." the girl still looked scared, but no longer terrified.

"Tomoya-kun is a lawyer and I am a scientist. Neither one of us are gangsters." Kotomi told the girl.

"Oh… I saw the motorcycle and… um…" the girl fidgeted.

"Don't worry about it." Tomoya told the girl as he reached for Kotomi's hand, "I need to show my wife the amazing view from the back porch so we'll be out of your hair for now. But, you should do yourself a favor and not make assumptions like that in the future."

"Okay." the girl watched as the couple walked out the back door and left her alone in the kitchen. Now that she knew they were supposed to be here, she saw them in a completely different light. He was so handsome and she was so pretty. And they were both so tall. To the girl's limited experience, they looked like visiting royalty. _And I_ _called them_ _gangsters… I'm such an idiot!_

.

Out on the porch, Kotomi's eyes got wider and wider as they approached the rail at the edge of the deck… and at the edge of the cliff. In the distance, a few white puffy clouds were hurrying along in the constant Pacific coast wind. The sky was a luminous light blue and the ocean beneath it was a darker and richer hue of blue underneath a shimmering blanket of millions of droplets of reflected sunlight.

Kotomi leaned on the deck railing and let the stiff ocean breeze waft her long purple hair. It was already warm, but not terribly so. This mid-August day would warm up to be quite hot by the afternoon, but for now, the warm humid wind felt wonderful on her skin.

Kotomi's eyes opened when she felt something else on her skin. She was looking down at the white sand of the beach and the blue-green swirls of clear water that relentlessly pushed far up onto the beach, then receded back only rush onto the beach again. But it was the feel of Tomoya's hands on her body that was making her heart race.

While she was leaning over the rail, he had placed his hands on her creamy white thighs. The robe she was wearing would fall to the knees, if she were standing up. But bent over at the waist with her arms outstretched on the deck rail had caused the hem of her robe to ride up high on her legs. Tomoya's hands ran up, underneath the fluffy material of the robe to feel the gentle swelling of her hips, followed by the narrowing of her waist.

Tomoya had taken the preemptive step to make sure the delivery girl was gone before he started anything, but once he knew they were alone again, he didn't hold back. He could feel her body trembling as his hands climbed higher and he knew that she too was in the mood.

Kotomi stood up and raised her arms above her head so that Tomoya's hands pushed the bunched up robe completely off of her. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her in the air and lowered her down his body. Her legs kicked his robe open then wrapped around his back as she settled into place. She moaned as she felt his strong hands holding onto her hips.

"Tomoya-kun." Kotomi said softly into his ear.

"Kotomi-chan?" Tomoya replied.

"I love you." Kotomi said the words and kissed her husband on the lips in the passionately energetic way that Tomoya had become accustomed to getting from his wife. Demure and unassuming everywhere else, but when it came to 'making out' the shy Kotomi turned into a hungry lioness.

.

 **T** **hur** **s** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **1** **9** **–** **Okazaki** **House** **(where Youhei lives)**

* * *

Youhei awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. He started to get up but grumpily remembered, _T_ _hat c_ _a_ _n't be… Yukine and_ _Yoichi are gone on their vacation trip… without me. And yet, I definitely smell breakfast cooking._

Throwing on some clothes, he opened his bedroom door and immediately heard voices from down the short hall. _Eh? Either this place is haunted or someone broke in to my house… and made breakfast? It must be Thursday. Nothing ever makes sense on Thursdays._ Just then he heard a familiar voice in the conversation. _Tomoyo?_

.

Tomoyo had finished serving up several plates of rice and eggs when she saw Youhei's stunned face in the doorway. He was stunned because there were eight rather stocky men in working clothes in his dining and living room areas. They were all enjoying a hot breakfast while they listened to Tomoyo.

"What?" Youhei was shocked at the unexpected visitors, but felt somewhat better when Tomoyo handed him a plate of hot breakfast food, and a cup of coffee.

"Tell that story again Mikio." Tomoyo called out to the guy in gray-green overalls sitting at the kitchen table. "I want Sunohara to hear this. He may have an idea that could help."

"Uh, yes boss." Mikio turned to face Youhei and repeated the story he had just told everyone else, "It was the day of Yukine-sama's birthday party. We went to that florist in the market to get her the yellow flowers that she likes so much."

Youhei felt like he should thank the boys again for all the flowers. It had really meant a lot to Yukine, but he could tell that this wasn't the crux of the story. Instead he nodded for Mikio to continue.

"It was when we went to pay for the flowers is when it happened. Ya see, we keep our wallets in the tool boxes like we were told and when we opened them up to pay, the girl at the register could see the special tools we was carrying." Mikio told him.

"Special tools?" Youhei asked.

"They are devices that Kotomi and her technicians put together." Tomoyo told Youhei, "One looks like a satellite telephone, the others look like small projects a high school electronics club might build."

"Can I see them?" Youhei asked.

"Sure." Mikio opened his tool box and Youhei could quickly see the strange devices on top of more ordinary looking tools like wrenches, pliers, and hammers.

"So, what's the problem?" Youhei asked.

"We're not supposed to attract attention but these gadgets…" Isamu shook his head, "As soon as the tool box opens up, people always get curious about the gadgets."

"So, put them underneath all the normal looking tools." Youhei suggested.

"Theys too frajil." Iwao grunted.

"We've already broken a couple of them while they were on the top." Isamu admitted, "Those tech boys weren't happy about that at all."

"Can I see this?" Youhei reached for Mikio's toolbox.

"Sure. You got an idea?" Mikio handed the toolbox over to Youhei.

"I think so…" Youhei walked over to the dining table and set the box down. He carefully pulled out the three sensitive looking devices then dumped everything else out on the table.

Several of the guys in the room flinched from the sudden noise of the tools spilling out onto the wooden surface. But they all watched in silence as Youhei picked up one thing after another and looked at it carefully. Eventually, he concentrated on the thickest of the three devices. It was a project box on one side, but had a glass dome held in place by a dozen small brackets on the other side. He put the thing in the bottom of the tool box and then studied the tray. The toolbox came with a top tray but the weird device was too thick and there was no way to store it underneath the tray without breaking the glass piece.

"These tech guys have the tools to fabricate these gadgets… so they might be able to do this." Youhei looked up and was a bit startled to see that he was the center of attention. "They need to either modify the toolboxes so that the tray sits higher, or they need to rebuild these… things so that they fit under the shelf."

"Yeah… that might work." Isamu agreed while Tomoyo was already on her cell phone – calling the tech team.

"Whoa, she looks like she's in a hurry." Youhei observed.

"She kinda is." Kenta sounded a bit worried, "Our first mission is in five days."

"Five days?" Youhei was shocked. He had thought it was still a month away.

"Yeah… and they're still arguing about how much money we should take with us." Takeo laughed.

"You can't take any money with you." Youhei said in surprise that they hadn't already figured that out.

"Huh, why not?" Isamu asked.

"It's supposed to be a parallel world like ours, right?" Youhei said to the full room, "I don't know all the details on how this parallel universe stuff works, but from what I understood from Kotomi, the place you go could be almost identical or it could be similar but not all that close, right?"

"Yes." Tomoyo answered warily. She still had the phone in her hand from the previous call, but she had finished talking to them and was wanting to hear what Youhei was talking about.

"If the world is enough like ours, then the money you take with you will already exist there… and it will be counterfeit… which is illegal. If the world is more different, then their money might be more different and any money you take with you will be useless or seen as counterfeit… which is again illegal. Isn't one of the goals to avoid the authorities?"

"He's right." Tomoyo agreed. "Thank you Sunohara."

"Right, well I have to go get ready for work. Feel free to… wait a minute! Why is everyone in my house?" Youhei blustered.

"Sunohara, may I have a word?" Tomoyo cut through his anger with her plea and he followed her back up the hallway to the entrance to his bedroom. "I need your help, Sunohara."

"Um…" Youhei could see the distress in her eyes. He hadn't seen her look this concerned since she thought she might lose the student council president election.

"I'm too worried about everything and I'm not thinking right." Tomoyo confessed, "I should have been able to come up with that solution for the toolboxes and I certainly should have seen the problem with taking money to another world."

"Hey, you're probably just a little stressed out." Youhei tried to reassure her.

"I'm sure that I am stressed out. If I make a mistake, one of them might not make it back alive… they could all be lost." Tomoyo kept her chin up, but Youhei could see a single tear run down her left cheek.

"All right… I'll do what I can." Youhei thought for a moment like joking with her or telling her that she would owe him one… but no.

"Thank you Sunohara." Tomoyo gave him a slight bow and turned away to let him start getting ready for work. As he was going back into his room, he heard Tomoyo make an announcement to her boys.

"Good news guys, Sunohara will be helping out too, so we'll be meeting here every morning until Kotomi gets back from her vacation." Tomoyo tried to sound as positive as she could.

Youhei was about to yell out that he never said they could all meet here every morning. But the guys started hollering their thanks and appreciation to him and he just… couldn't.

"Oh well," he consoled himself as he stepped into the bathroom and stripped off his clothes, "At least she makes a good breakfast."


	8. Chapter 8 - Haruki Murakami

**S** **atur** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **21** **–** **The Okazaki Farm in Hokkaido**

* * *

Kyou thought that she was the first one up when she tiptoed out of the room she was sharing with Tomoya's cousin, Yuki. Well, she was supposed to be sharing the room with Yuki, but a late night thunderstorm had changed all of those plans. There were two rooms with two beds in them and a large common room just across the hall. The night started with Kyou and Yuki in one bedroom, Yukine and Kouko in the other bedroom, and all of the kids on the floor of the common room. After the thunderstorm started, the common room was empty and Kyou found that she was not alone in her bed any more. Shuji was sleeping at her side and in the bed across from her, Yuki was now sandwiched between Shuichi and Maiko. Given Maiko's attitude toward boys, she had to wonder if Maiko was aware that Shuichi was just on the other side of Yuki. She could only imagine what the other room looked like.

After carefully closing the door to the bedroom, she almost screamed when she turned and saw Okazaki Shino quietly smiling at her. The old woman was already dressed in a Kimono and seemed amused at Kyou's startled reaction. She smiled and beckoned for Kyou to follow her toward the kitchen. Kyou tiptoed after the older woman and waited until they were far enough from the rooms with sleeping children before saying anything.

"I thought I was the first one up." Kyou half whispered.

"City people getting up before farm people?" the old woman scoffed. "That would be unheard of."

The two rounded a corner and discovered that Yukine was already in the kitchen and looked to be well on her way to making a big breakfast for everyone.

"You were saying?" Kyou snickered back to the older woman.

"Hmpf!" Shino had to accept defeat, but she did it gracefully. Within the next few minutes, the three of them were helping each other with all that had to be done to prepare a breakfast for six adults and six children.

Yuki arrived a few minutes later and was followed by Shuichi, Shuji, and Maiko.

"Ah, the big kids are here." Kyou commented.

Yuki almost had a fit that she was being lumped together with the children by someone that wasn't all _that_ much older than her. Fortunately, she remembered that Kyou often referred to Shuichi, Shuji, and Maiko as the big kids and Yoichi, Yasuo, and Michiko as the little kids.

"Yuki-chan," the Obāsan asked her granddaughter, "Will you show the little ones how to set the table?"

"Yes, Obāsan." Yuki turned to get started on the task and didn't notice Kyou's thoughtful expression. She had come to the kitchen to help her grandmother with the food preparations, but with three women already in the kitchen, it was already a busy place. Her younger cousins, Shuichi and Shuji had really taken to her and seemed to always want to impress her by showing how reliable they could be. Even Maiko-chan would fall into line and do what Yuki asked… when the boys did.

"Obāsan." Kyou was deep in thought and hadn't realized that she said the older woman's honorific out loud.

"Yes?" Shino looked up.

"Ah! Sorry," Kyou blushed and turned back to the cutting board she had been using, "I was just thinking of how nice it is to be a part of a close family."

"What do you mean?" Shino asked the lavender haired girl.

"Well, my family isn't exactly the model of…" Kyou started to explain the differences she saw between her parents and what she saw in the Okazaki family, but the old lady cut her off.

"That's not what I mean, Kyou-chan." Shino took the lavender haired girl's hand and said, "I am not so old and stupid that I do not see what is going on around my grandson."

"Eh?" Kyou blushed as she wondered just how much the old woman knew.

"I am also not so hidebound by current ideas of propriety that I cannot accept what I am seeing either." Shino raised an eyebrow in a knowing look.

"What?" Kyou felt alarm at what the elder Okazaki was saying to her.

"His children call you Okāsan. You live in the same house with him and his legal wife, Kotomi-chan. All three of you support each other… and love each other as well. This old woman can clearly see that."

"I…" Kyou was unsure whether she should deny it or admit that she was deeply in love with the old woman's grandson and had been since their high school days.

"Maybe not officially, but for all intents and purposes, you are a wife to my grandson just as much as Kotomi-chan is. There are many things that a husband and wife do together. As far as I can see, the only things you haven't done yet are to have his children and to call me Obāsan. When that time comes, I will be happy to see those great grandchildren as well."

"Obāsan!" Kyou squeaked as her face burned red.

"Ah, good! You're calling me Obāsan already. Now I trust you'll be getting busy on that other thing as soon as you get home?" Shino smiled.

Kyou's eyes and mouth were opened wide and she was stunned beyond words.

"Good morning everyone," Kouko said as she entered the Dining room. Seeing Kyou still blushing and with a shocked expression on her face she asked, "Did I miss something?"

"No no." Yukine replied, "Obāsan was just giving Kyou a little pep talk."

"Yukiiiiine!" Kyou's blush only intensified when she realized that her conversation with Obāsan had been overheard.

.

After breakfast, Naoyuki offered to take the children on a short drive to the big fields of flowers that were nearby. At first, only the girls were interested in going to look at a bunch of flowers, although Yoichi said he would go if Michiko went along. Kyou could see the sadness in Naoyuki's eyes when Shuichi and Shuji in particular were not interested in going.

Naoyuki had come a long way in his recovery under his mother's care. With proper medical treatment, his pain was now under control and he no longer had to rely on alcohol for relief. He was up to doing light work around the farm and had made friends with several of the workers there. But many members of his own family were still distant to him. His own sister still refused to acknowledge his presence even though she now accepted Tomoya as a family member. Naoyuki had gone through many things in his life that now caused him regret and the several years of soured relationship with his son was one of them.

Although Tomoya was no longer afraid of, or disgusted with his father – their relationship was no longer a close one. And that was what Naoyuki regretted the most. Things weren't always bad with Tomoya. At one time, they had been a solid father and son team. He would take his son to parks and playgrounds, buy him snacks, and even helped him with his homework. He had attended numerous Junior High School basketball games to cheer his son on, even if he couldn't make it to all of them.

But the alcohol and the pain infused rage had ended all of that just after Tomoya's graduation from Junior High School. After the injury to Tomoya's arm, it seemed that things would never be the same again between them. Watching his son lose faith, love, and respect in him had only fueled the growing despair. He had given up on himself a long time ago, but he had never given up on Tomoya. In his more lucid moments, he would tell himself, _if only Tomoya makes_ _something of himself_ _, I know I will have done something right in my life._

"Would you boys like to see some pictures of your father when he was your age?" Obāsan asked as she walked into the room with an old photo album.

"Really?" Shuji asked.

"Pictures of Dad are in there?" Shuichi sounded amazed.

"I want to see too!" Michiko declared.

"All right then, gather around." Shino put the heavy album down on the table and carefully opened it up. The first picture in the album was of a person that looked a lot like Tomoya, and he was holding hands with a very pretty girl in a field of flowers.

Kyou felt a pang of jealousy when she first saw that first picture. She wasn't the only one that thought she was seeing Tomoya holding hands with some beautiful girl that wasn't Kotomi or herself… or even Tomoyo. Then she realized that the man in the picture wasn't quite Tomoya. Recognition hit her a moment later when she remembered being in that same place. She and Kotomi had taken Tomoya there years ago to meet with Shino at the old lighthouse park. At the time, she had no idea how pivotal this place had already been in Tomoya's life.

"Is that Daddy?" Michiko asked.

"Who is that girl? She's beautiful." Shuji sounded awed.

"That's not your father, that is your Ojiisan. And the beautiful girl was Tomoya-kun's mother. This picture was taken before your father was even born." Shino waited until Shuji's small hand had pulled back from where he had been touching the image of the pretty girl's face – then she turned the page.

The picture on the next page seemed a little blurry, as if someone had struggled with being able to hold the camera steady when the picture was taken. The field of flowers was still there. The mountains were still in the background. The man was also there, although this shot was from behind, no-one had any doubt that this was the same man as the first picture. This time, the person holding his hand was a little boy. His back was also to the camera but he was looking up at his father.

"Oh!" Kyou felt the tears come to her eyes when she noticed it. The man in the picture was holding onto his son with one hand, but his other hand was open as if he was expecting someone to take it… someone to be there… someone to be holding his other hand. But, there was no-one there. Kyou lifted her gaze and saw that Obāsan was looking back at her. The elder Okazaki's expression confirmed everything before she flipped the page to show more pictures of the man and the boy… but there would be no more pictures of the pretty girl.

There would never be any more pictures of the pretty girl.

"I think I would like to go see those flowers again." Kyou said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Again?" Yukine asked Kyou.

"Okāsan, have you been there before?" Shuichi asked Kyou.

"Kotomi and I were there with your father before you were born." Kyou answered, "It was a really beautiful place." She felt someone climbing into her lap and looked down to see Shuji laying his head on her chest as he wrapped his arms around his Kyou-mama.

"I want to go too." Shuji announced.

"Is this the same place we're going to go?" Shuichi asked his Obāsan as he pointed to a picture of the flower covered field.

"That's right." Shino smiled at her great grandson.

"Then I want to go with everyone." Shuichi decided.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea Shuichi-kun." Shino agreed with the little boy and turned to her son and said, "Let's all go together."

.

 **Sun** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **22** **–** **Okazaki** **House** **(where Youhei lives)**

* * *

Youhei awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking… again. There was nothing wrong with Tomoyo's cooking, but it was a reminder that his own wife was away and wouldn't be back until… uh… Youhei looked up at the calendar and saw that there were no more days that hadn't been marked off before the circled date of the 22nd.

"Yatta!" Youhei cried out as he jumped out of bed to get a better look at the calendar. It was true; today was the day that Yukine and Yoichi would be coming back! Having lived on his own through most of high school, he hadn't realized how much he would miss her after she had only been gone a few days. Even though he had the morning briefings with Tomoyo and the boys, and he had his work-friends, there had been an awful loneliness tearing away at his heart as each day away from his wife and son wore on. But all that misery was over now – Yukine and Yoichi would be back today!

Youhei was doing a victory dance alone in his bedroom when he noticed that Tomoyo and four of the guys from the morning briefing were watching him through the open doorway. He froze in mid dance step and stared back at them.

"That's uh… some interestin exercise you got there." Iwao offered.

"Uh…" Youhei pointed to the calendar on the wall and said, "Yukine and Yoichi are coming back today."

"That's great Youhei." Tomoyo smiled. Then, as she turned to go back to the kitchen, she told him, "You should probably put some clothes on."

"Ack!" he cried while grabbing the sheet off his bed, but it was too late. Tomoyo was already gone and the guys at the door were riotously laughing.

.

The laughter was over by the time Youhei was dressed and in the kitchen. When Tomoyo handed him his plate of food, he noticed that the mood had become somewhat tense. She had outlined the restrictions and rules that they needed to follow and for the most part, they understood that all these rules were there to make sure they made it home safely. Most of the tension was Tomoyo herself. In all her youth she never thought she would end up caring about the thugs she used to fight, but now… she did. She had watched them work so hard and do their best. She was the kind of person that respected genuine effort and she knew how hard they were trying to get ready. And now the date they needed to be ready for was drawing near and it was time for the part of her role that she dreaded the most. Although she would certainly rather not even think about the unenviable task that was left to her, she was not one to shirk her responsibility. It was just so hard to make herself bring it up…

"Have you decided on who will be going on this first mission?" Youhei casually asked Tomoyo.

"Yes." Tomoyo didn't know whether to curse Youhei or thank him. She looked around the room and met everyone's eyes. "You have all done really well in the training sessions. Your ability to blend into the background is impressive. I also appreciate all the effort you've made at learning how to use the fancy gizmos that Kotomi's technicians came up with. That being said, I don't think anyone will object if I pick Isamu as the Team Leader."

After a quick look around the room by Tomoyo and Youhei, it looked like everyone had given a silent agreement. Only Takeshi seemed like he might say anything, but decided not to after all. Part of Tomoyo wished that someone had fought her on that. Of all of them, she believed that Isamu had shown the most improvement and was the most reliable of all of them. For that reason, he was indispensable for the first mission. But they all knew that the first mission would be the one with the most number of unknowns… and therefore, the most dangerous.

"I picked the other three team members at random but, having just announced the Team Leader… perhaps I should let Isamu decide on his first team." Tomoyo offered.

"Oh I dunno… did you have any problems with the guys you picked?" Isamu asked as he scratched his head.

"No." Tomoyo answered.

"Well, if it's all the same, I think I'll go with your pick then." Isamu was trying to show his confidence in _The Boss_ and didn't understand why his response made her face darken.

"All right then. The first team will be Isamu, Hiroki, Kenta, and Takeo" the words slipped from Tomoyo's lips like they were a death sentence. She felt miserable at having to tell them they would be in the first team to go. She was sure that these four men would have some serious soul searching to do, now that they knew that their last moments in this world may end in only a few days. This could very well be a doomed mission for all of them. If something went wrong, at best they could simply be unable to return home but at worst… they could all end up dead. _And I was the one to send them there._ _What have I done. How can they ever forgive me?_

Takeo was the first to react. As soon as he heard The Boss say is name, a huge feral grin spread across his rugged face and his eyes opened wide with excitement. Not able to hold the feeling back any longer, he leapt to his feet and threw his arms in the air.

"Banzai!" Takeo shouted at the top of his lungs.

"What?" Tomoyo was about to question the man's sanity when Takeo was joined by Kenta, Hiroki, and even Isamu.

"Banzai!" the other three shouted along with Takeo while everyone else got to their feet as well.

"Banzai!" everyone shouted together.

Tomoyo was stunned. She turned to Youhei to get his help in understanding this madness only to see that he too was on his feet.

"Banzai!" the room full of men screamed at the tops of their lungs. And then… silence.

It all stopped when they saw Takeo standing rigidly with his arms down by his sides and facing Tomoyo. The others stood and watched reverently as Kenta, Hiroki, and Isamu also took the same pose and faced Tomoyo.

"Sakagami-sama," Takeo said alone when he called her name, but his voice was joined by the other three as they all said, "domo arigato gozaimasu." After which, all four of them executed the formal low bow to her.

.

Tomoyo had troubled dreams. She found herself in a place that was supposed to have a beautiful view, but it was colorless and it seemed that she could only see it from afar. Standing on a hilltop, a flat sea was off to her right and a featureless gray sky was above her. Directly across from where she stood, there was another hill. The side that she could see was ordinary and plain, but the other side was unknown and darkly mysterious. Tomoyo noticed that, climbing the hill on the other side of a ravine were a group of men. They were getting farther away and closer to that vague and colorless distance. Suddenly afraid of that uncertain place, she screamed out to them. They heard her after the third scream and turned to look at her. Not understanding that she wanted them to come back, they smiled and waved, then walked away… over the hill and out of sight. They looked proud and even cheerful as they went on their way. But… would they ever make it back?

Just as she was about to run after them, Tomoyo felt the presence of someone standing nearby. An older man wearing a plaid shirt stood watching her. Salt and pepper stubble covered his chin and around his mouth. Sharp but kind eyes watched her as she wavered about what to do next.

"How can they do this?" Tomoyo cried out to the familiar looking stranger, "Don't they know how dangerous this is?

"They are aware of the danger, but it is something important. Isn't it?" the man replied to her, "You know that each of them feel like they have been living a useless existence. They see this as a rare chance to redeem their useless lives and do something they can be proud of."

"Surely there must be some better way to do that!" Tomoyo shouted in anguish.

"But who can say what is best? That is why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives." The man put on a dark jacket and walked down the hill after the departed men.

Tomoyo stood there for several minutes as she watched the man walking towards the same uncertain horizon. His words echoed in her mind. The message at first was disturbing, but brought understanding at the same time, And through understanding, she felt a growing calmness take her.

… _we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time…_

The wind in this world picked up and blew into her face and wafted her platinum blond hair.

… _if we let those chances go, we regret it for the rest of our lives._

The colorless world cracked into life with a brilliant golden light on the horizon and a deep violet behind her.

 _That is why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it…_

She raised her hand to her eyes to stop a single tear from sliding down her cheek. With understanding, the doorway was open to acceptance. Forgiveness would follow, but forgiving yourself is a difficult thing. Depending on how the mission went, that forgiveness could come sooner or later for her.

"Sakagami-san?" a curious voice called out to her as she floated in that place between wake and sleep.

"Mmm." Tomoyo moaned but didn't wake up yet. Then she felt a gentle hand brush the side of her face and her eyes popped open to stare into piercing blue eyes only centimeters from her face.

"Do you need a hug?" said the most compassionate voice Tomoyo had ever heard.

"Um… yes." Tomoyo admitted. "Yes I do."

The face smiled warmly and small arms wrapped her in a loving embrace. Tomoyo wrapped her arms around the small body that held her and unashamedly cried into a child's chest.

Standing in the doorway to the small living-room were the parents of little Yoichi. Both of them were amazed with their son. When Yukine and Yoichi got home and found Tomoyo asleep on the couch, the little boy didn't pause for a moment. Before Yukine was able to ask why the tall blond was asleep in her house, Yoichi was seated on the couch with Tomoyo's head repositioned in his little lap. Now they watched in awe while their four year old son hugged the crying woman and comforted her with gentle caresses to her head.

"We must never tell _the boys_ about this." Youhei said quietly to his wife. He could only imagine the embarrassment she would have to endure if the rugged men that called her The Boss, ever found out about this vulnerable gap in her armored personality.

"Hah," Yukine laughed, "The boys could handle it. It's Michiko that we'll need to keep this a secret from."

.

 **Sun** **day** **afternoon** **,** **August** **22** **–** **Yoshino** **House**

* * *

Yusuke was relaxing in his empty house with an electric guitar and an old, but reliable amp. It was rare that he had such a chance to play his instrument of choice, since the Yoshino home was often full of people. People… that didn't like it when he turned the amp up this much.

His eyes were closed and his body loose as he strummed through a particularly melodic part of a song that had always made him feel good. This was a good day. His fingers were flying across the strings and finding the right places and just the right sounds. With his foot tapping the beat of the song, he felt transported to another place when a shadow passed between the sunlit windows and his eyelids. His eyes blinked open to see a rare sight.

Fuko had a serene look on her face as she twirled, capered, jumped and spun to the sound of Yusuke's music. Her eyes were mostly closed, but a serene smile played on her lips as she swished and swayed around the room. Yusuke watched the small girl move to the tempo of the music he created. Her long hair and blue bow caught the background rays of light that streamed in from the windows lit by the afternoon sun. Yusuke became mesmerized by Fuko's smooth movements as she interpreted the mood in his music into a dreamlike dance.

As the song moved from a slow moving lullaby to a fast arpeggio and a sudden end, Fuko's dance went from gentle flowing motions to an almost out-of-control spin up on her toes and then a fall to the floor as the music ended.

"That was incredible!" Kouko called out from the doorway from the kitchen. She and the two kids on either side of her wore expressions of stunned amazement.

"Ah!" Fuko said in surprise at their sudden arrival and the realization that she had been seen in her little performance. She was starting to get up from the floor, but she was knocked back down again by both Maiko and Yasuo as they both ran into the arms of their Obachan.

"Your dancing was so pretty, Obachan!" Maiko gushed.

"You made Otōsan's music look amazing!" Yasuo cheered.

"Have you been teaching Fu-chan how to dance?" Kouko asked Yusuke.

"No," Yusuke replied to his wife, "I was just as surprised as you were."

"Fu-chan, when did you learn to dance so beautifully?" Kouko asked her sister who was still on the floor.

"Fuko joined the dance club about five years ago." Fuko announced, "It's a lot of fun, but Fuko has a hard time if the music isn't any fun."

"My music… is fun?" Yusuke asked. He could think of a lot of descriptives for it but _fun_ wasn't one that came to his mind.

"Fuko could tell that you were having fun when you were playing it. Fuko could feel that it was fun!"

"I… I don't follow…" Yusuke was about to try to get Fuko to explain in more detail but his wife's delicate hand squeezed his shoulder to let him know that he should stop.

"Don't ask her to explain herself. You'll only get more confused." Kouko chuckled and remembered so many conversations with her little sister that ended with one or both of them more confused and upset at the end. Instead of trying to puzzle out her little sister, Kouko leaned over and kissed her husband's lips. It had been a week and she found her husband's kiss to be as electrifying as his guitar.

"Fu-chan, can you be a dear and watch the kids for a bit?" Kouko asked as she sauntered back towards their bedroom, "I need to work a few things out with Yusuke… for a while."

Yusuke's eyes opened wide and he watched for Fuko's response with great anticipation.

"Fuko can do that!" Fuko declared, "Maybe Fuko will teach them some dance moves?"

"Yes! Yes!" both of the kids were shouting.

Yusuke jumped over the back of the couch and was in the bedroom in a flash. In less time than it would take for someone to take a deep breath of air, he had gone into the bedroom, and then quickly and quietly closed and locked the door. After all, working things out with his wife was very important and should not be interrupted except under the most dire of circumstances!

.

 **Sun** **day** **afternoon** **,** **August** **22** **–** **Ichinose** **House**

* * *

Tomoya was struggling with the luggage from where the Taxi let him off – up to the house. Unfortunately, Kotomi wasn't with him and there was quite a bit. He didn't hold that against her though. Although they generally had Sunday's all to themselves, it was only two days until the first practical test of Kotomi's grand experiment and he had half-expected her to be called away as soon as they got home from the beginning.

"Ah, Tomoya-san, you have returned." he heard the wizened voice of old Koumura call out to him from the front porch of the house.

"Yes." Tomoya turned to tell the old man that he would deal with the luggage and that Kotomi had been called away. After all, some of these suitcases were fairly heavy and he didn't want the old man to hurt himself. But his thoughts were reshuffled when he saw two older women approaching to fetch the suitcases.

"The foundation had been calling for Kotomi-chan since early this morning." Koumura told him, "I imagine she will be joining us later then?"

"Yes, but much later." Tomoya said with a hint of sadness, "She probably won't be done in time for dinner."

"Perhaps something could be prepared and taken to her?" Koumura suggested.

"An excellent idea. I'll just relax in the living room for a bit and take it up to her when it's ready." Tomoya said.

"Did you two skip lunch?" Koumura asked.

"No, we ate lunch in Tokyo after the flight back." Tomoya answered.

"Then, there isn't any real hurry is there?" Koumura smiled and suggested, "You should go upstairs and take a nice relaxing bath."

"Hmmm, that does sound like a good idea." Tomoya smiled and headed up the stairs. Even though the vacation had been on a hot tropical island, the idea of soaking in a hot bath appealed to him. The route from the island had been a bit less hectic, but no less convoluted than the route to the island had been. Unwinding in a hot bath sounded like just the thing to help him find his calm again.

Tomoya realized he had been set up when he got to the bedroom. From there, he could hear the sound of water running and humming coming from the bath area.

"Ah!" Kyou cried out when she heard the door to the bath area open. "Oh, Tomoya! You're back already?"

"Yeah, we didn't spend as much time in Tokyo as we had planned." Tomoya moved up to where Kyou sat on a shower stool. He took a handful of her gloriously long lavender hair and felt it between his fingers. "You haven't conditioned it yet?"

"No… I wasn't going to bother with that." Kyou had actually been thinking of having her hair cut short like her sister's. _Short hair was is lot easier to take care of and besides… I'm not in high school anymore so there's no need to…_

"I'll do it." Tomoya sat down on a shower stool behind Kyou and reached for the bottle of hair conditioner. "Both you and Kotomi have such long beautiful hair. I really love that about you."

"You… you do?" Kyou's thoughts were stopped dead in their tracks. "But I thought you didn't care one way or the other."

"Oh? I never told you before?" Tomoya realized that he might not have said anything and made a note to complement them both on their hair and appearance more often. He knew he didn't do it enough, but that was because he had always though he wasn't very good at it. _I have to get over that way of thinking or they might get the wrong idea and do something dreadful like… cut their hair short._

"No. What do you like about it being long?" Kyou was genuinely surprised. In all the years she had known him, she had never known that he preferred long hair.

"What do I like about it?" Tomoya could hear the subtext and felt a shiver pass through him when he realized that Kyou was already entertaining the idea of cutting her hair short. _I have to do something about this… quick!_

"Yeah, what's so good about long hair?" Kyou was curious but she was also enjoying the gentle tugging his hands were causing as he gathered up all of her hair to begin the conditioner treatment.

"You have beautiful hair, so more of it is more beautiful. I love the way it catches in the wind." Tomoya felt that such platitudes weren't enough and decided to try something risky. "But mostly, I love that I can do this!"

Tomoya already had all of her hair gathered up in his hand so it was easy to simply make a fist and pull her head back and down by her hair. Kyou reacted in shock at first that Tomoya would pull her around by her hair, but before she could say a thing, his lips were upon hers and he was kissing her with all of his passion.

Kyou could feel her own passion rising. She had his neck and head in a hug before she realized that she had moved her arms. She moaned when she felt his other hand cup her breast and gently squeeze her softness.

 _Thank you Koumura-san._ Kyou thought to herself. _Your suggestion of a bath was magnificent._

.

* * *

 *** Notes ***

"But who can say what is best? That is why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives." - Haruki Murakami


	9. Chapter 9 - Showtime!

**Mon** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **3** **–** **The Okazaki Farm in Hokkaido**

* * *

Yuki woke up in her bed alone. That didn't bother her until she remembered that she had gone to sleep with little Michiko next to her. All sleep was gone from her in an instant and she sat up with a start. She was about the throw on her shoes and a robe and go looking for the missing child, but she didn't have to go far. Without turning on the lamp, she could see from the first rays of sunlight coming through her bedroom window, where Michiko was. The other bed in her room, where Kyou had been sleeping during her visit, now held all three of the Okazaki children. At first she thought they were all sleeping together, but a quiet sob gave it away.

Michiko was laying between her brothers. Her face was in Shuji's chest and Shuichi was rubbing her back. Shuji had his arms around her head and he was gently holding his little sister while she cried.

"She'll be okay. She just misses home." Shuichi told Yuki before she needed to ask what was wrong.

"She can be a bit of a crybaby sometimes." Shuji's words may have seemed harsh, but the tone of his voice conveyed nothing but affection for his little sister.

"Homesick, huh?" Yuki thought something like this might happen after Kyou left with all the others. In a last minute decision, Kyou had agreed to let all three of the Okazaki children stay a few extra days with their aunt, grandfather, and great grandmother. They hadn't asked to stay. Rather, the elder relatives wanted desperately to see them just a little longer and Kyou knew that it would be very hectic back home for the next several days. The arrangement was that they would come home later in the week with Yuki. But Michiko was only four years old and was now without her father, mothers, or even her Yoichi.

Hearing her brother and Yuki talking, she turned her head to see her aunt's face. Her arms went up and she was quickly lifted into a hug by the tall girl. Being held in the arms of her aunt made Michiko feel better, but she still wanted to go home.

"I know what it's like to be homesick." Yuki said to the unhappy little girl, but the words were meant for the two brothers as well. "But, that just means that you don't feel safe, or you don't feel loved, or you can't imagine having fun without the people that aren't here. So, you know what your Obāsan, Ojiisan, and I are going to do?"

"What?" Michiko asked and her brothers stared up at Yuki with questioning faces too.

"Over the next couple of days, we are going to make you feel so safe, and so loved, and we're going to have so much fun, that you're going to think of Obāsan's house as another home for the rest of your lives!"

"Yay!" the brothers cheered.

"What… what are we going to do?" Michiko still sounded doubtful.

"Well today," Yuki smiled as she ran her fingers through her niece's hair, "I thought we might go to a friend's house and ride some ponies. Does that sound like fun?"

"P… ponies?" Michiko's face immediately lit up. Her brothers, behind her, were bouncing on the bed in excitement.

"Yup!" Yuki said with confidence, They have ponies and chickens and cows, and great big horses."

"Yay!" the brothers cheered again and Michiko's sadness was finally replaced by excitement.

 _Oh yeah!_ Yuki felt very satisfied with herself as she watched the little girl's sadness turn into exhilaration. _Every little girl wants to ride a pony!_

.

Naoyuki smiled outside the door to _Yuki's room_ , which was what Obāsan called the spare bedroom ever since her granddaughter moved into it. His mother had been quite right. _The children will be sad that they didn't get to go home with Kyou. The boys might be somewhat unhappy, but Little Michiko-chan surely will be quite homesick. You leave all that to Yuki. She's spent some time with them and she'll know how to bring them around. All you have to do is be there to make sure they are safe, hold them when they are tired,_ _and make sure they get enough to eat and drink. It's not a difficult job, but you are the only grandfather those kids have._

Naoyuki walked away from the door to go help his mother with breakfast. "Grandfather huh? I think I can do that."

.

 **Tues** **day** **early** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **4** **–** **The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

It was still the pitch darkness of night. The special flatbed trucks were stabilized and had finished setting up several hours ago. The special equipment on the backs of those trucks had been carefully tested and calibrated. Technicians continued to run tests and take measurements, but they had already surpassed the safety threshold on every check. The only reason they were still waiting was… for the mission team. It wasn't that they weren't ready. The problem was that it was still too early.

On the original schedule, they would have been making the transition at three in the morning when they had the best chances of not being seen on arrival. It was Tomoyo that had found the weak point of their plan. A small group of men in work clothes would blend into any background with a lot of people in it. But, at Dark-30 in the morning, there wouldn't be a lot of people to blend in with, and then the opposite would happen. Four guys in work clothes in the middle of the night would stick out like a sore thumb. Just walking down the street that early in the morning would draw too much attention from anyone that happened to see them, and the oddity of it would beg official questions… which was exactly what they didn't want.

So, the decision was made to create the gateway a few minutes before the Furukawa bakery opened. Some of the project planners didn't like it. They thought that such a late start would increase the chances that someone would see them appear in the Park in the other world. But it couldn't be helped. The bakery was one of the first stores to open in the morning and would provide an excuse for their presence if someone saw them.

"So… twenty-five more minutes." Takeo said to the pacing Tomoyo. He could tell that she was nervous. She had gone over the directives of what they should and shouldn't do a dozen times. They had gone through their tool boxes and checked all their equipment at least that many times as well.

"Maybe… we should check the equipment again." Tomoyo suggested nervously.

"Boss," Isamu said as compassionately as he could, " the equipment is fine." He moved in front of her and shouted over her head, "Kenta, get your butt over here!"

"What's up boss?" Kenta said as he drew up behind Tomoyo.

"I'm not the boss, baka! She's The Boss. And she's so worried about us, she's stiff as a board." Isamu replied.

"Say no more." Kenta's huge hands descended on Tomoyo's strong, but small shoulders and gave a firm squeeze.

"Now, wait a minute!" Tomoyo started to object but Isamu took her hands and smiled at her.

"You've done so much for us Sakagami-sama. Won't you let us do this little thing for you?" Isamu asked the platinum blond boss.

"But…" Tomoyo found it hard to object. She really was tense and Kenta's hands were really starting to feel good on her shoulders. Her greatest objection was that they were treating her like their honorable benefactor and she still felt like she was betraying them.

"That's it, just let Kenta do his thing. He's really good with those bear paws of his." Isamu felt her grip on his hands relax and it looked like her whole body was starting to finally calm down.

Kenta's hands really were very good. Tomoyo wondered where or why a rough guy like him would learn such a soothing skill. As soon as he finished the massage, she vowed to go over the rules with them one last time… just to make sure.

"It's show time!" Tomoya's voice cut into the quiet under the tent that had been set up for the survey team.

With her reverie broken by the announcement, Tomoyo suddenly realized that Kenta's massage had relaxed her all the way to sleep. She jumped to her feet and saw that Isamu was waiting for her with Tomoya, but the other three were already on their way to the designated test area. Tomoyo was uncharacteristically rattled and looked around as if she thought she was forgetting something.

"C'mon Boss," Isamu smiled, "you're gonna see us off, right?"

"Yes." She gave the search up quickly with a shake and faced Isamu and Tomoya and said, "Of course I'm going to see you off. Let's all go see if Kotomi's grand miracle of science will work as promised."

"You still think this thing is gonna kill us?" Isamu asked as he trotted to keep up with the longer legged and quick paced Tomoyo and Tomoya.

"No!" Tomoyo only realized how bad that comment sounded after she heard Isamu's question, "I was just thinking that… after all the training you guys have been through, it will be pretty silly if nothing happens at all."

"Heh heh heh," Isamu chuckled, "Boss… you really gotta work on your pep talks."

.

Hiroki, Kenta, and Takeo waited for Isamu at the roped off perimeter that took up second base and most of center field of the baseball diamond. Kotomi, Kyou, and a few of the senior technicians were also there but most of the support people were clustered around the trucks at the park's borders. The senior technicians had lab coats and headsets on and were quietly talking with other personnel. Kotomi had a headset too, but it was down around her neck so she could concentrate on the people around her.

"I hope you are all as excited as I am!" Kotomi seemed much more animated than usual and she was, indeed – very excited. The only reason she was able to leave the house with her hair brushed and her pants on, was Kyou.

"We're all excited, Kotomi. Now remember why we're here, okay?" Kyou said with some mild exasperation. The lavender haired friend discovered that she couldn't be more than two meters away from Kotomi at any time or the excited genius would get distracted and wander off somewhere or forget what she was supposed to be doing.

"Oh yes," Kotomi reached into a box and pulled out some generic looking caps. They resembled baseball caps with the built-in flip-down visors. They were in neutral colors and had no insignia on them, They seemed to be constructed a bit sturdier than the caps that real baseball players wore. "At Youhei-kun's suggestion, we were able to incorporate a lot of the peripheral devices into this cap. The visor is now able to give you the same features as the goggles that you used in the last run-up test, and the communications unit is blue-tooth connected to the radio in your toolbox. The battery has an endurance of three days of constant use, but you are to return in only twenty hours, so that should suffice for the given mission parameters."

The men in the workman coveralls took the hats. They spent a few minutes adjusting them to fit and flipping down the visors. Kenta opened his tool box, removed the top tray and pulled out the special goggles that they had previously worn.

"Keep the goggles." Tomoyo told them all. "The hats are new and… untested. It would be wise to have backups, at least until these things prove themselves."

"Good idea." Hiroki agreed. He was never a fan of all the high tech wizardry they kept trying to train him on anyway. If anything broke it wouldn't be his coveralls or the monkey wrench he kept in his tool box. It would be one of those precious tech toys, and if that happened, he knew that having a backup might mean the difference between getting home or being marooned.

"Gentlemen, it is time." the shorter of the senior technicians had unclipped the rope from the nearest pole and was gesturing for them to pass inside like an usher at a movie theater, or an attendant at an amusement park ride.

Tomoya and Kyou stood with Kotomi. The lavender and purple haired girls put on their special goggles. Tomoyo put on her goggles a moment later when she noticed the senior technicians putting theirs on. The countdown was at thirty seconds when four more men came shambling up to the rope to stand around Tomoyo. Iwao, Mikio, Ryota, and Takeshi said nothing but put their goggles on too and watched quietly as the seconds ticked down for their friends in the middle of center field.

"Tomoyo-chan," Kotomi was holding out a spare headset and offering it, "Can you test this and see if you can communicate with them now?"

"Yes… of course." Tomoyo put the headset on and keyed the microphone built into the headset, "Can you guys hear me?"

"Uh… oh crap… where's the microphone button on this thing?" She heard Isamu cursing. From where she stood, she could see him taking the hat off his head to try and find the button in the dark.

"The microphone built into the hat is voice activated." Kotomi's voice sounded in all their ears.

"Ten seconds." another voice announced. Everyone could now see the strange effect of the light baubles. At first, they were just dancing across the ground and slowly moving toward the four men at the center of the cordoned-off test area.

"Yes Boss," Isamu put his hat back on and answered, "I can hear you fine.

"Whoa! Check out the lights!" Takeo's voice sounded surprised but not scared. The baubles of light seemed agitated. They were moving faster now and swirling around the four men.

"Baka! You've seen the lights before." Kenta verbally slapped his excited friend.

"Three seconds." The light baubles were moving even faster now.

"Yeah, but they're going through us!" Takeo replied.

"Two seconds." The men in the center of the test area could no longer be seen due to all the crazily zig-zagging and orbiting balls of light.

"Through you? Are you hurt?" Tomoyo demanded. She started to take a step toward the cordoned-off area, but Mikio's big hand landed on her left shoulder and Takeshi held onto her right.

"One." All of the lights suddenly folded back on themselves – dropping to the ground and then rushing up into the starlit sky in a tall pyre.

"Zero." The lights were gone and there was no-one in the test area any more. For a long moment, everyone could only stand and look at the empty space where four men had just been huddling together.

"Twenty-ten, August twenty-four, 4:55 AM local. August twenty-three, nineteen hundred hours and fifty-five minutes Zulu and start the clock." a voice announced over all the headsets, "Countdown timer to recovery is set for tomorrow morning at 1 AM local, sixteen hundred hours Zulu."

"Kotomi!" Tomoyo hollered after the voice snapped her out of her daze, "What the hell happened? What did they mean about the lights going through them?"

"I don't know." Kotomi admitted, "But I'm glad that you find it interesting too. I think it is quite fascinating!"

"Kotomi, _interesting_ is not the right word!" Tomoyo demanded, "I want to know what was happening to them and if they were hurt. I want to know right now if they're okay!"

"Oh… well I won't know until they come back, but I can offer you my hypotheses if you like?" Kotomi was becoming concerned about Tomoyo's agitated state.

"How… how can you not have some way to get in touch with them? What if the world isn't what you are expecting at all and they needed to come back before twenty hours is up?" Tomoyo asked.

"I… I did not plan for that possibility. The whole goal is to go to a world that is remarkably similar to our own, so that kind of thing… shouldn't be possible." Kotomi gave her answer but, as she gave her reply to Tomoyo, she found herself unsatisfied with them. She keyed her microphone again and said, "Communications team. It looks like the hats worked as expected. Now I need a way for us to communicate with the exploration team while they are away and a way for them to communicate with us."

"Thanks." Tomoyo was somewhat placated by Kotomi's request for the development of a way to communicate with the exploration team, but she was still concerned about the ones that were away now. "Okay, let's hear it."

"Hear what?" Kotomi asked.

"Your hypotheses." Tomoyo reminded the purple haired genius.

"Oh yes. I believe that the light orbs are actually only shadows of something that exists at another dimensional level. In all the tests we have run, we have never been able to get a mass or energy reading from them. We can only see the lights when wearing the goggles because they are capable of showing us imagery captured from a wide spectrum that we cannot normally see. Therefore, my hypotheses is that these light orbs would pass through a person without them ever noticing and the orb itself would not be able to interact with a person in any physical way." Kotomi bowed as if she had just finished a presentation.

"Um… Kotomi-chan?" Tomoya asked, "What did you mean about not being able to see them without the goggles?"

"Just that, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi expounded on her earlier statement, "It is not possible for the human eye to see the phenomena we call _light orbs_ without significant spectral enhancement."

"So… if I could see the light orbs just fine without the goggles, would that mean there is something wrong with me?" Tomoya asked his wife.

"I… I don't know." Kotomi was curious why Tomoya would ask such a question.

"You did, didn't you?" Kyou was looking at the goggles that were around Tomoya's neck and had been the whole time. "You saw the lights without the goggles on."

"Yeah… I did." Tomoya admitted.

"Fascinating." Kotomi tilted her head as she considered why it might be that Tomoya-kun would be able to see the shadows of dimensional artifacts without optical enhancement.

"Can we please stay on topic?" Tomoyo restrained herself from yelling at Kotomi, but just barely. "Tomoya's vision may be very interesting, but I really want to know if Isamu, Hiroki, Kenta, and Takeo are safe now."

"Tomoyo-chan, I regret that there is no way to know how they are until they return." Kotomi told the distraught platinum blond as plainly as she could, "After they return and we can analyze the readings on their instruments, there is a good chance that we can set up some kind of communication that will work through the wormhole, or gateway. There may be something that lingers between our world and the other that we may be able to use. But, for this first mission, there is no such device."

"Then what… what can we do?"

"Get some rest." Tomoya suggested, "Midnight will be here before you know it."

"How can I rest?" Tomoyo looked back at the dark and empty outfield. "Wherever they are, I'm sure they're not getting any rest."

.

 **Tues** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **4** **–** **The Okazaki Farm in Hokkaido**

* * *

"You're not getting any rest." Yuki heard the familiar voice in her half awake state and couldn't tell if she really heard the words or if they were a dream. She felt something warm clinging to her as her mind clawed it's way to full consciousness. Moving her hands to the sources of that warmth, she felt the bodies of two children cuddled up on either side of her. When she opened her eyes, she saw her Obāsan's face smiling down at her through a mane of deep purple bed-head. At first, she though something must be wrong, but she could tell by the old woman's smile that all was right with the world on this particular morning.

Obāsan was seated in a chair next to Yuki's bed and had her great granddaughter in her lap with the child's head resting on her shoulder. Yuki remembered when she was little and her Obāsan used to carry her around and sit with her in the old woman's lap. She was even older now and could no longer carry a child as big as Michiko around, but she could still give the girl a good lap-snuggle.

"Obāsan, did you say something?" Yuki asked while blinking the morning blurriness out of her eyes but holding onto the fond memories.

"You are doing too much. I'm worried that you're going to wear yourself out if you keep going like this. You're not getting any rest." her grandmother worried over her.

"I… I went to sleep the same time that the boys did last night." Yuki squeezed the little boys that were glued to her sides as proof of her claim.

"Well… you're not getting enough rest. You're not going to be any use to these kids if you wear yourself out and catch a summer cold."

"But… I don't want them to get bored." Yuki knew her grandmother would see right through her excuse. Yuki didn't want to be bored either and was having a blast with all the things she was doing with the kids. But, when she was honest with herself, she knew she was running close to exhaustion having kept up with her niece and nephews for over a week now.

"Yuki-chan, I have an idea." Shino started to propose her idea but she could see Yuki already pouting.

"I know. I know." Yuki grumped, "You want me to stay home and take it easy today and rest up."

"Actually, I want you to rest up for two days." Obāsan said with a grin.

"Eh?" Yuki's disbelief was evident in her tone.

"Hear me out." Shino explained, "You stay here and rest up today. Naoyuki and I will take the children into town. We'll do some shopping for clothes and things they might need when they go back to school. If there's enough time, we'll take them to play in the creek under the old bridge. Then tomorrow, we'll all go to the hot springs up in the hills. How does that sound?"

"Hot Springs!" Yuki was the one who was excited now. "Okay, I can rest up for that!"

"Aunt Yuki, what's so special about hot springs?" Shuji asked from where he lay with his head on her arm.

"What's so… oh yeah." Yuki remembered what she had read about the place where these two boys had grown up. Houston was on the gulf coast of the North American Great Plains and there were no volcanoes, mountains, or hot springs within almost a thousand kilometers of there. Compared to Japan, it was as flat and featureless as an unfolded crepe. Of course the boys would have no experience with hot springs. She had to tell them in a way that would excite little boys…

"Okay, do you boys know what a volcano is?" Yuki asked them.

"Um, yes." Shuichi answered, "It's a mountain that is full of melted rock called lava."

"That's right, and that lava is made from the hot molten core of the Earth itself. All the energy from deep inside the planet flows underneath and inside volcanoes."

"Wow." Shuichi sounded amazed and watched his aunt with rapt attention.

"Japan sits on lots of volcanoes so there is a lot of energy under most of the country. And, in some places water from the rain and melting snow leak down through cracks in the rocks until they get close to the lava. The hot lava turns the water into steam and sends it bursting up through the ground into hot springs."

"Wow!" both boys exclaimed.

"That water is special because it has important minerals from deep places in the Earth and it was turned into steam by the hot lava. So, when you soak in that water, some of those special minerals and energy soaks into you!"

"I wanna go!" Shuji shouted.

"I wanna go too!" Shuichi agreed.

"How… how hot is it?" Michiko asked worriedly.

"It's like a hot bath, but don't worry… Obāsan and I will be there with you." Yuki assured her.

"What about Ojiisan?" Shuji asked.

"He'll be along, but he'll be on the men's side with you boys while Michiko is with us on the girl's side." Yuki told them.

"Huh?" The boys looked confused. Shuichi asked, "Why is there a boys side and a girl's side?"

"Because it's a bath and not a pool." Obāsan said with a knowing grin.

"Eh?" the boys still seemed confused.

"No swimsuits. You go into the baths without any clothes on." Yuki almost burst out laughing at the sudden consternation of the two boys.

"WHAT?" the boys were dumbfounded.

.

Sitting on the back porch in the rocking chair with a cup of coffee in her hand, Yuki was trying to relax. She had tried just letting her mind wander while gazing out at the distant hills beyond the patchwork fields of farms… but it was no use. In the past few days, she had held the small hands of her niece and nephews so much that she had become accustomed to it. And… they had become accustomed to her too.

The boys had taken to her first, of course. When Kyou was still in Hokkaido with them, Michiko had insisted on staying close to her Kyou-mama or to little Yoichi. But the boys had been awed with their tall aunt ever since they had watched her playing volleyball at the park. She had to institute a taking-turns policy when she noticed that they were starting to fight over who got to sit next to her in cars and on amusement park rides. But, Michiko had eventually come around.

Almost immediately after Kyou and the others left to go home, Michiko had dissolved into tears and it had been Yuki's arms where she found comfort and solace. Since then, she had learned to trust her grandfather and her great-grandmother as well. But it was rare that one of the children wasn't putting their little hand in hers, or snuggling up to her when they got tired.

A blissful smile warmed her face as she looked at her palm and remembered how small their hands looked inside hers. The smile faded when she heard the creak of the wooden patio deck as someone approached. Yuki knew that she was the only one left at the house… so this had to be someone that did not belong here. In a moment, she had her cell phone in one hand and the sturdy coffee mug in the other.

"Yuki." a stern voice called out to her.

"Do not take that tone of voice with me." Yuki replied in exactly the same words that had been said to her so many times… and from the same person. Seeing who it was, she carefully put the cell phone down on the windowsill, but kept her coffee cup.

"How dare you! I will speak to you in whatever tone of voice I choose. I am your mother!" the woman shouted.

"I have been told that you were the woman who gave birth to me, but I have yet to see any scientific proof of our relationship." Yuki said it out of spite. She knew that the woman was her mother, but they had not seen eye to eye in years.

"How dare you!" the woman screamed and moved to slap the girl in the chair, but Yuki suddenly stood and simply batted the swat away. She had learned many useful things from living with Tomoyo for four years.

"Do not come near me again, old woman. I am not the child that you can beat on any more. If you try to hit me again, I will hit back and you will not soon forget the pain." Yuki didn't like threatening her own mother, but she was still furious with the woman and did not like having her good mood ruined on the day she was supposed to be getting some rest.

"You ungrateful bitch!" the woman shouted but caught herself before she came into range of her daughter's long arms.

"What exactly is it that I should be grateful to you for?" Yuki picked up her coffee but kept her eye on the irate woman a few meters away from her. "And don't say I should be grateful to you for giving birth to me. You have _no_ idea how many times I wish I had been born to any other mother than you."

"I raised you!" the woman shrieked.

"Obāsan raised me." Yuki disagreed.

"I will not stand here and be lectured with lies by an ungrateful child!" the woman seethed.

"Then leave." Yuki said as she calmly took a sip of her coffee.

"What did you say?" Yuki's mother sounded livid.

"You act like I called you an adulterous back-stabbing whore, but all I said was for you to just leave." Yuki sounded bored, as if she had been through this argument a dozen times and every time it was the same.

"Adulterous…" the older woman's face paled and looked shocked.

"All of those times you dropped me off at Obāsan's when papa was out of town. I didn't always stay there, you know. After I learned to ride a bicycle, I sometimes rode home to find the house empty. But at the farm down the road, I could see our car parked in the driveway of our neighbor."

"You lying bitch!" the woman spat, "I don't care what filthy lies Naoyuki told you about me…"

"He didn't tell me anything about you." Yuki looked thoughtful for a moment before revealing, "In fact, he won't talk about you at all."

"Then Okāsan… she filled your head with deceitful stories about me and..." she never got to finish her sentence.

 _SLAP!_ Yuki had taken two giant strides across the porch and closed on her mother before the woman knew what was happening. The first slap had silenced her but she foolishly raised her arm to slap back.

 _SLAP!_ Yuki blocked her mother's attempt and struck her with the other hand. Before the older woman could recover, Yuki struck again with a series of blows.

 _SLAP!_ The woman took a step back to try to get away from the stinging swats.

 _SLAP!_ Raising her arms to protect herself seemed to do no good at all. The flailing woman took another step back and… there was nothing there.

Yuki watched dispassionately as her mother fell off the porch. It wasn't a long drop, but it was enough to topple the woman and bring her to her knees.

"How… how could you?" the woman said from the ground.

"I don't care if you say cruel things about me. After all these years, I am quite used to it" Yuki's calm fell away and for the first time she seemed truly angered, "But don't you _dare_ talk bad about my niece, my nephews, my cousin, my uncle, or my grandmother. In my eyes, you don't even deserve to say their names."

"That's enough! I will not stand for some delinquent daughter to be so disrespectful to her gracious mother." a man's voice yelled out from around the corner of the house as he charged at Yuki.

"You're gonna get it now, you insufferable bitch!" the kneeling woman sneered as she watched the barrel chested farmer close on her daughter.

Yuki smiled as the middle-aged farmer made his move. She hadn't seen him in years and he looked a little different now, but she recognized him. The neighbor that lived down the road from her house. As expected, he made to grab her, but she wasn't the weak little girl she used to be. Yuki dropped to an almost squat the way Tomoyo had trained her.

 _A girl's power is in her legs. This is how to make the best use of them._ Yuki still remembered her senpai's words and the serene look on Tomoyo's face when she could release her tension on the heavy practice bag with those strong legs of hers. _Tomoyo would be proud of my form now._

Almost two dozen rapid impacts kept the man from falling over until the last kick sent him flying off the porch.

The woman still kneeling in the grass was stunned as she watched the man's body sail over her head to crash into a heap on the ground behind her. She had known her daughter was tall, but she had never seen anything like that before. When she turned back to the porch, she almost wet herself when she discovered that Yuki was only centimeters from her face.

"Listen carefully." Yuki's calm had returned but there was no mistaking that a wrong word could bring back the rage in an instant, "It took a supreme act of will and self control to only strike you with my open hand. The next time I see you, I will not try to restrain myself. I will let you know just how completely disgusted I am with you. Now go, and leave quickly… before that next time is now."

Yuki followed them around to the front of the house and watched as they climbed into the same old car and drove away.

"And now the shakes." Yuki said to herself as she stumbled back to the steps of the front porch and sat down. She always felt queasy and got the shakes after a fight, or after having to deal with her mother. Since this had been a fight with her mother, she was sure she would need to sit for a while before her nerves settled. Strangely, she didn't feel as incapacitated as she thought she would. After a few minutes, she was able to make it back to the back porch where she retrieved her cell phone.

It was leaned up against the glass on the windowsill where she had left it, and it was still recording. This was a trick she had learned from Tomoya. Always record confrontations. Very few things would be as convincing as a recording when it came to proving your innocence in a situation where there were no witnesses… or when all the witnesses are stacked against you.

Yuki had learned the hard way that her mother would do whatever it took to win. If she couldn't defeat you by force, she would lie to everyone about your character. Yuki had witnessed first hand, how her mother would do that to her own brother. Naoyuki may have had his faults, but he did not deserve to be treated like that. _No-one deserves to be treated like that._

"Hello?" A voice came from her phone.

"Eh?" Yuki looked at the screen and saw that she had accidentally dialed Tomoyo. "Senpai!" the loudness of her own shout briefly scared her as she felt the emotions welling up inside.

"Yuki? Is something wrong?" Tomoyo asked her college roommate and good friend.

"I… I…" Yuki sobbed and wondered if she should burden her senpai with her story.

"Yuki, listen to me." she heard Tomoyo's calm voice from the phone, "Just take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

"Thank you, senpai." Yuki took that deep breath and decided to take advantage of Tomoyo's kindness. "My mother showed up here unexpectedly and… we had a fight."

"Are you okay?" Tomoyo asked her.

"I'm not hurt." Yuki let it all spill out then, "I just couldn't take it any more. She's been doing awful things…"


	10. Chapter 10 - Kotomi-sama is scary

**Tues** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **4?** **–** **The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery** **(Alternate Universe 1)**

* * *

The light baubles had reached the intensity of a full white-out blizzard and the four men couldn't even see each other any more when the countdown reached zero. Up until now, they could feel nothing unusual. There were only the bizarre light spheres whirling around them that they could only see through the visors.

But all of that changed in an instant. For the eternity of a single moment, the four men all had the sensation that they had just been dumped into freezing cold water. Then there was a blast of light… no not a blast of light after all. Unlike the darkness of the early morning where they had just come from, the park was now well lit in the light of day.

"Hey, my clothes aren't wet but I still feel cold." Takeo complained.

"Me too." Kenta added.

"We're all cold." Isamu agreed. The look of the sky and the crispness of the air felt wrong, "I don't think it's August here. It feels like…"

"Spring." was all Hiroki said, but when the others followed his finger that pointed to the line of distant trees they could all see what he meant. The sakura were in full bloom and the pink and white petals were in the wind everywhere.

"Dammit!" Isamu cursed.

"What's wrong boss?" Kenta asked.

"We're not dressed for spring. We're all gonna die from exposure if we don't get warmed up soon… And don't call me _Boss_!" Isamu answered.

"What do we do?" Takeo didn't sound his usual brash self in this unusual circumstance.

"Well, there's no helping it. There were three other things we were supposed to do first, but we need to get warmed up so let's head for the Furukawa Bakery."

The familiar bell over the door rang out but it wasn't Yukine-sama or Akio-san's voice that called out to them.

"Good morning!" Nagisa called out when she heard the bell ring. But she swallowed a little fear when the four strange men came into the shop.

"Ah, Nagisa-san! It's good to see you again." Kenta said before he remembered that this Nagisa had probably never met him.

"Again?" Nagisa squeaked. All four of the men looked rough and two of them had very scary faces.

"You probably don't remember. It's no big deal. Could you call Akio-san for us?" Kenta was, if nothing else, fast on his feet. In his time as a gang member, he had committed a fair share of swindles as well as getting into fights. It was a reputation he was no longer proud of, but those same skills might be able to help them here.

"Sure." Nagisa actually felt better that this man knew her father's name and wanted to speak to him instead of these four rough looking men surrounding and talking to her. She turned and yelled into the back of the bakery, "Dad! There are some men here that want to see you."

"What's going on out here?" Akio demanded as he came around the corner with his baseball bat in his hand and a bent cigarette in his mouth. "You boys trying to make trouble for my daughter?"

"Akio-san! What is with all this blustering?" Kenta laughed as if Akio was an old friend and was just joking with him. "Did you forget that today is your day for the Community Labor Pool?"

"Huh?" Akio was terribly confused. He didn't recognize any of the men in his shop but they weren't acting particularly dangerous. In fact, they seemed to be ready to get to work… but on what?

"The contract pays for all of our services except the deductible which must be paid in cash." Kenta explained as if he had run through this spiel a hundred times, "The services include labor but not materials. You should have prepared a list of things for us to do."

"Uh… that sounds like a really good deal as long as the deductible isn't too much, but I don't remember any of this." Akio said suspiciously.

"Akio-san, how can you say that? We talked about it at that community baseball game." Kenta said as innocently as a child.

"That explains it." Nagisa was shaking her head, "If Dad's playing baseball he doesn't remember anything else.

"Uh yeah… that's kinda true I guess." Akio put his bat down and asked, "So, what kind of things can you do and how much is the deductible?"

"Ah well… the deductible is nine thousand yen." Kenta's friendly smile didn't change, but mentally he and the other three men were all cheering this success, "We can do roofing, electrical, ceilings, walls, floors, appliances, plumbing, and of course… moving heavy objects."

Takeo groaned because Kenta gestured to him when he mentioned moving heavy objects.

"Nine thousand? Is that all?" Akio sounded stunned.

"Yep." Kenta said with a satisfied smile, "I told you before that this was a good deal."

"It is… a very good deal. Can you install a new window?" Akio asked while considering the offer. Although, he was not considering whether he would take the deal any more. He was now trying to figure out what things he might be able to get done in the time he had these guys.

"Absolutely!" Kenta chuckled to make the request sound laughably easy for them.

"That's good." Akio was already putting the list of things he wanted done together in his mind as he described some of the issues, "I've been wanting to replace the bathroom window with one that is frosted and has better insulation…"

While Kenta was closing the deal with Akio, Isamu was looking around the familiar bakery. Everything looked normal as far as he could tell. It didn't have the frilly little changes that Yukine had made, but then, she might not work here in this universe. Then his eyes found a calendar and he did a double-take. Of course it confirmed what they already knew from the sakura trees – that the season wasn't the same as the world they had left from, but the year… The wall calendar was on April of 2006. _2006! That was four years ago!_

"Uh… is this calendar right?" Isamu asked Nagisa while he gestured at the calendar – but he didn't point to any specific day.

"Yeah," Nagisa said after she walked over to the calendar, "I got up extra early to see the full moon this morning. It was so pretty over the trees."

"Oh yeah? I shoulda looked up and seen it myself." Isamu smiled back at Nagisa, then he looked back at the calendar to see what day the full moon was on. _So today is the thirteenth of April, 2006. Kotomi-chan will want to know about that. Huh… I wonder if that changes anything on our to-do list? We'll play Kenta's game for now, but at least two of us need to get out of here for a while and try to get the info we're supposed to be here for. But I suppose… that can wait until it warms up a bit._ Turning away from the calendar, Isamu followed the others as Akio continued to explain all of the work he needed done.

.

It had been a busy morning and the four men had been a blur of activity. They had already fixed a couple of electrical outlets, moved two of the large ovens in the bakery, and they were waiting on Akio to get back from the hardware store to finish the repairs on the washing machine and get to work on a roof repair. Isamu was finished rewiring the light fixture in Nagisa's room when she came in to let him know that lunch was ready.

"I made some sandwiches if you're hungry." Nagisa offered.

"Ah, thanks Nagisa-san." Isamu decided that this might be a good time to get some questions answered. "You went to Hikarizaka, right?"

"Yes, but I didn't finish." Nagisa sounded a little embarrassed to admit that.

"Because of your health?" Isamu asked.

"Yeah… how did you know about my health problems?" Nagisa asked.

"Oh..." Isamu realized his gaffe and tried to come up with a plausible reason that wouldn't sound too creepy. "I have a friend that has a little sister that went to Hikarizaka. A lot of people were pretty sad when you got sick, you know."

"Really?" Nagisa sounded surprised, "Who was the sister? Did I know her?"

"Her name is Suno… I mean, Miyazawa Yukine. You probably didn't know her though. She wasn't in your year, but she had friends that were."

"Oh." Nagisa sounded disappointed and admitted, "I didn't really know anyone that wasn't in my year. I barely knew the people in my own class."

"That's okay. I didn't know everyone in my high school class either." Isamu chuckled. _Of course in my case, it's because I never went to school._ "I'll just put this ladder away and wash up, then I'll be there for the sandwiches."

"Oh… okay." Nagisa left to go tell the frightening gorilla-like man that was working in the bathroom, that it was time for lunch. She had saved the scariest for last in the hopes that dealing with the other three would give her the courage to approach the scariest one. But it wasn't working. She stopped moving a meter from the bathroom door and the struggle to move any further forward was about to make her cry.

"Nagisa-san." Kenta's voice said her name from just behind her.

"Eep!" Nagisa covered her mouth after her frightened squeak.

"You're scared of Hiroki-san aren't you?" Kenta asked quietly.

"Yes." Nagisa admitted guiltily. She turned and looked up at Kenta-san. He was almost twenty centimeters taller than her and looked rough, but he didn't look anywhere near as scary as the man working in the bathroom.

"Let me tell you a secret about Hiroki-san." Kenta smiled reassuringly, "Think of a toy store with some hand made teddy bears. All of the teddy bears are made with kindness, care, and love. But one of them… well, lets just say some mistakes were made when they were making his face. He's still the kind, caring, and loving teddy bear that all the other ones are, but none of the kids want him because his face is scary."

"That's so sad!" Nagisa was about to cry again, but for a different reason this time.

"That's Hiroki-san." Kenta frowned, "He has a heart of gold. He would rescue you from flood waters or even a burning building if you were in trouble. But not many people like him… because his face is so scary."

"Ah!" Nagisa realized that she too had done the same thing as the children that wouldn't love the scary looking bear. She rushed into the bathroom and threw her arms around a very surprised Hiroki. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry for being afraid of you! You don't have to be an unloved teddy bear!"

"Huh?" Hiroki was stunned. Even in his universe, Nagisa-san had never shown him this much affection or attention. She was nice and polite, but… never anything like this. He looked up and saw Kenta in the hallway with a shocked expression. For a moment he thought Kenta might be playing some kind of joke on him, but the sincerity in Nagisa's apology rang too true to be any kind of a joke. The brief anger quickly became curiosity, then wonder. Finally, he settled on just trying to acknowledge Nagisa's feelings.

"Hey, Nagisa-san… it's all right. I'm used to people being afraid of me." Hiroki tried to console the distraught girl.

"Oh no!" Nagisa broke down into tears when she heard his attempt to make her feel better, "What Kenta-san said is true! You are the poor unloved teddy bear and… I was the same as everyone else!"

Hiroki was glaring at Kenta now. He didn't know what Kenta said, but he was certain it was that idiot's fault now. He wanted nothing more than to stomp over there and beat the fool with his monkey wrench… but Nagisa was still holding onto him… and she was now even more distraught than before. Not being any good with words, he picked Nagisa up and held her like a child against his chest and shoulder with one hand and gently patted the back of her head with his other hand. He had seen seen Yukine, Kyou, and Kotomi do this when their children were upset and it worked for them. _But Nagisa-_ _s_ _an is an adult so something like this shouldn't… She stopped crying!_

Kenta was as stunned as Hiroki. He had only intended to make a little joke at his friend's expense but Nagisa had taken him far too seriously. Her reaction had been completely out of character for the Nagisa that they knew. _But she's not the Nagisa we know. She never finished high school. She never met… Ryou-_ _s_ _an. In this universe, she is more alone and more childlike than the Nagisa-_ _s_ _an we are used to._ His thoughts were interrupted when he felt the presence of someone standing next to him. Looking over, he saw Isamu's angry eyes.

"I don't know what's going on here, but why do I have the feeling that it's your fault? Isamu grumbled to Kenta.

.

 **Thurs** **day** **afternoon** **,** **April 13, 2006** **–** **The** **road to the Ichinose House** **(Alternate Universe 1)**

* * *

Takeo and Kenta stayed to tackle the roofing job so Isamu and Hiroki were able to break away for a while as soon as the washing machine was fixed and the bathroom window was mounted. With tool boxes in hand, the two men were walking up the road toward the Ichinose house to make their first stop.

"You talk with Nagisa-san?" Hiroki said quietly.

"Yeah. Dead end there." Isamu answered the scary looking but soft spoken guy, "In this world she quit school after she got sick in her senior year and she doesn't know any of the others."

"That's too bad. Nagisa-san is a nice girl." Hiroki grumbled.

"Well, she's learning how to be a baker from her dad now. That's not such a bad thing, right?"

"Umph." Hiroki grunted but Isamu couldn't tell if he was agreeing or not. All of the former gang members liked Nagisa and Ryou, but that had mostly been because they were the good friends of Yukine-sama. Sure, Nagisa and the Furukawa family had always been nice to them ever since the incident at the Okazaki house, but there had never been a lot of singular interaction with Nagisa alone by any of the gang members turned construction workers. The way this universe's Nagisa had warmed up to Hiroki had made an impact on him. It had gone beyond the tearful apology in the bathroom. She made sure his drink was refilled and sat next to him while they ate. When she found out that he would be leaving for a while with Isamu, she made some additional sandwiches and gave them to him so he would have a snack if he needed one. Hiroki was pretty sure that Isamu picked him to join him on their reconnaissance walk to get him away from Nagisa for a while. He was still thinking about Nagisa when his thoughts were interrupted by Isamu's remark.

"Whoa… this is different." Isamu had stopped when he rounded the corner and saw the Ichinose residence. It was boarded up but not in the way a house is prepared for an oncoming storm. It looked like it had been sealed for a very long time. "Let's see… if it's April of 2006 then Kotomi-chan would be going to school in America… but this…"

"It looks abandoned." Hiroki said. He noticed that the paint was chipped and flaking away, some of the boards over the windows were split, and the roof seemed to sag in the middle. Nothing looked damaged, but there were signs of rot, decay, and neglect.

"You boys lookin fer somethin?" an old woman stopped working in her garden to ask the two workers that had stopped in the street in front of her house.

"Uh, yes ma'am." Isamu said with his most disarming smile, "We were looking for the Ichinose's or the Okazaki's?"

"I dun know no Okazaki's." the old woman said while scratching her head. Then she pointed at the boarded up house and told them, "That there is tha Ichinose house, but yer 'bout ten years too late if ya want ta see the Ichinose's. That poor family all died ina plane crash a long time ago."

"The whole family?" Isamu asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I used to watch their little girl for 'em when they went off on their lecturin trips, but they took her with 'em that time since it was her birthday. And that was the last time I seed any of 'em."

"I see. Well, thank you ma'am. I guess we just had some bad information." Isamu thought about pulling out the map, but he had a good idea how to get to the next destination from here.

"That can happen I spose. You boys have a good day." the old woman sounded polite but she watched them to see what they were up to, and if they would really be on their way.

Her fears were allayed when they both shrugged and turned for the next stop on their list. Their quick pace was because the Fujibayashi home was some distance from the Ichinose house by foot. But the speed of their departure relieved the old woman that had an odd feeling about those two from the first moment she saw them. She watched until they were out of sight and then – they were out of mind as well. Less than a minute later she was back to her gardening and had forgotten all about the two workers.

.

There was no-one at the Fujibayashi residence either, but at least the place looked lived in. They rang the bell and knocked several times but decided not to look in any windows in case the Fujibayashis had any nosy neighbors like the old woman that lived near the Ichinose's house.

The two nondescript workers walked silently down the road. They both knew that this world was not their own and nothing here would affect the people in their own world, but to find out that Kotomi-chan was dead here… was a bit of a blow. They were now heading for the Okazaki house which was on the way back to the bakery when Hiroki stopped in front of a sporting goods store.

"Tired?" Isamu asked his comrade. They had been walking for a while now and the tool box was getting pretty heavy.

"No. But… it's gonna be pretty cold tonight, ain't it?" Hiroki asked.

"Yeah. True that." Isamu agreed. He hadn't thought about the evening much, but it would be unlikely that they would be able to stay at the Furukawa Bakery into the night. Instead of asking Hiroki what was on his mind, Isamu turned and looked at the advertisements that were plastered in the window of the store. He soon found the one he figured Hiroki was looking at: an advertisement for a six-pack of compact emergency survival blankets for only eighteen hundred yen. Since he had the money from Akio-san, he decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get something here.

"Welcome!" a familiar sounding voice called out from the back of the store.

Hiroki and Isamu looked at each other in surprise. Then they both hurried to the back of the store to find the girl behind the voice. When they got there, they found a girl with long lavender hair hanging packets of screws on display pegs.

"You boys look like you've seen a ghost." Kyou laughed at their stunned expressions.

"Oh, sorry." Isamu tried to recover himself, "I just didn't expect to see you here."

"Me?" Kyou now took a harder look at the two customers, "Do we know each other?"

 _Crap! I did it again…_ "I know someone who went to school with you." Isamu tried to cover himself.

"That is a really lame pickup line." Kyou said disdainfully. "Just so you know, I do _not_ date customers or co-workers."

"But… it wasn't a pick-up line. I really do know who you are." Isamu pleaded. He had finally found someone that could answer some questions and she was already dismissing him.

"You don't think we know who you are?" Hiroki didn't like her attitude. Kyou was always a firecracker and unpredictable. Most of the time he liked that about her but they just didn't have the time to wade through her personality quirks now.

"Nope. You're just two losers trying to hit on a store employee." Kyou's attitude was souring quickly.

"Fujibayashi Kyou." Hiroki's voice said evenly. He had a good mind for memorizing facts if not for figuring people out. He decided that it was time to use that talent.

"How do… how do you know my name?" Kyou knew that her name tag didn't have her full name and wondered where he had seen it.

"Older sister of Ryou-san. The two of you are fraternal twins." Hiroki pressed on.

"Hey now… leave my sister out of this!" Kyou's anger was starting to spike again when she thought of what these two rough looking guys might have in mind for her and her beloved sister.

"You attended the Hikarizaka Private High School and you were a class representative all three years." Hiroki watched the anger on Kyou's face change back to shock.

"How do you know…" Kyou's eyes were open wide as she looked back and forth between the two guys in workman's clothes.

"Your dream was to be a Kindergarten teacher." Hiroki said cautiously. He didn't want her to go back to angry and decided to stop here.

"Ah!" Kyou reacted like she had been slapped in the face. _How can they know that?_

"What happened to your dream, Kyou-chan?" Isamu asked the stunned girl.

"You don't know… my situation is…" Kyou stuttered.

"Why are you working here? Why aren't you in school learning how to be a Kindergarten teacher like you always wanted?" Isamu speculated, "Did… your father object that strongly?"

"Who are you guys!" Kyou shouted at the two men. _How can they know about the fight with my father? Surely they're not friends of his? What the hell is going on here?_

"I wasn't lying, Kyou-san." Isamu said softly, "And, it truly wasn't a pick-up line. I know someone that went to school with you. She thought very highly of you back then. Both you… and your sister."

"Oh." Kyou then remembered that he had indeed told her the same story at the beginning. "I'm sorry… I guess I jumped to conclusions. It's just that… I get hit on a lot here."

"I can understand that." Isamu tried to smooth things over, "You are very pretty. I would think you'd get hit on a lot in just about any job."

"Except Kindergarten teacher." Hiroki suggested.

"Naw, I could still see all the little boys, and probably most of the little girls wanting Kyou-san to be their mommy." Isamu argued.

"Yeh, true dat." Hiroki agreed.

"Um… now it sounds like you're hitting on me." Kyou said with a twisted smile.

"Not a chance." Isamu replied, "Not that we don't think you're a nice person or anything. It's just that we will be… leaving town tonight and we'll probably never be back here again."

"Oh?" Kyou's curiosity was piqued, "Going overseas?"

"Uh… something like that." Isamu wanted to change the conversation and re-asked the question, "But, I really would like to know why you're not in school to become a Kindergarten teacher now. That was your dream, right?"

"Oh that…" Kyou's mood became more depressed when she heard the question again. But her mood turned to pride as she explained her current plan, "You were right. It was my dad. He won't pay for me to go to college just to be a Kindergarten teacher. So, I got a job and I'm putting myself through school part-time."

"Very cool." Isamu encouraged the purple eyed girl. Then he asked, "Okazaki Tomoya was in your class, and then in your sister's class wasn't he? Whatever happened to him?"

"Tomoya…" Kyou went back to looking wistful as she thought about that name. "Yeah, he was in my class in our second year. In his third year, he started going out with the student council president."

"Sakagami Tomoyo?" Isamu asked with a little surprise.

"Yeah… I think that was her name." Kyou would rather have forgotten that name but now, here was someone bringing it up again.

"Is he still going out with her? Do they… live around here?" Isamu asked hopefully.

"No," Kyou was now forced to remember the last insult, "After her graduation, he followed her up to Hokkaido where she is going to university."

"Oh… I see." Isamu had never been briefed that there was some kind of rivalry between Tomoyo and Kyou, but he was seeing it now. She had been very helpful to them, but answering the questions had left her looking somewhat crestfallen. _Kyou-_ _s_ _an, I wish I could tell you that - in my universe, you are way ahead of Tomoyo in that race._

"Yeah… so, is there anything else I can do for you?" Kyou said in her best customer service voice.

"Yeah… we need the six-pack of emergency blankets that are on sale." Isamu also tried to sound more business like.

"Gloves." Hiroki grunted.

"Yeah… two pairs of gloves." Isamu added.

"Four." Hiroki reminded Isamu.

"Oh yeah, four sets of gloves." Isamu corrected himself.

"Thermoses." Hiroki suggested.

"Eh?" Isamu was starting to wonder if Hiroki was playing with him.

"Cold tonight. Hot coffee will be good." Hiroki explained in his brief way.

"Yeah, I suppose it would keep us warm and alert. Fine!" Isamu was more upset with himself that he didn't think of that, than any frustration with Hiroki, but it didn't look that way. Turning back to Kyou he asked, "How much is a thermos?"

"You guys are too funny!" Kyou laughed some of her stress away at the little comedy show that these two had put on just for her. Turning back to Isamu with a barely suppressed giggle, she told him, "We have some really nice ones for eight thousand." Kyou could see from their expressions that they wouldn't be able to afford the best, so she added, "There are a number of different models down to seven hundred. But, I should warn you that the cheaper ones aren't very durable."

"Durable… they only have to last one night." Isamu mumbled as he considered his options.

 _One night? Why would someone need a thermos that lasts only one night?_ She thought about their other purchases and began to worry that they might be in some kind of suicide pact. With concern in her voice, she asked him again, "Is there anything else?"

"Well?" Isamu immediately turned to Hiroki and passed the question down to him.

"Um… newspaper." Hiroki said after a little thought.

"Local or national?" Kyou asked as nicely as she could, but that was another purchase that raised alarm bells for her. _Do they want their bodies found with evidence about what day they died?_

"Both, please." Isamu replied. He tried not to let it show but he could tell that there was a change in Kyou. He had an advantage on her that she wasn't aware of. He had known the Kyou from his universe for some time and he could tell when she was trying to hide something. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was certain she had suddenly become more cautious than she had been only a few moments ago.

"We… only have nine thousand to spend." Isamu admitted apologetically.

"Nine thousand!" Kyou balked. Well, that explains why they were getting only the cheap stuff, by their other comments about only needing to last one night… and never being back… "I uh… I can get you what you need for that much. But… can you tell me why it only has to last one night? I mean… what are you going to be doing that you won't need to use a thermos again after tonight?" To Kyou's complete surprise, the rough looking guy smiled and actually seemed relieved after hearing her question.

"Ah, Kyou-chan is worried about us. I am honored." Isamu made a slight bow which caused Kyou to blush. "Don't worry about us so much. We have a… ride that will be picking us up late tonight to take us home."

"Oh… okay." Kyou answered through her blush. His story satisfied her previous concerns, but there was something else. _There's something strange about the way he calls me 'Kyou-chan' with such ease… such familiarity. It's as if he has known me for a long time, but I don't ever remember meeting either of these guys at all._ Kyou smiled and told them, "I'll just round up the things you need then."

Kyou went about the store gathering up the things on their list, but she did so while listening in on their conversation. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, she was still worried about them despite the convincing answer that Isamu had given her. They talked about making one last stop and about finishing the work at the Furukawa Bakery. And, several times in their conversation they seemed to mention getting picked up in the park.

 _Why am I doing this? Why do I care? They're just strangers._ Kyou struggled with herself. _I'm not the kind of person that goes sticking my nose into other people's business am I? So what if their purchases are weird… and they seem to know me… and I don't know them… and they'll never be back after tonight… and they know a lot about my past… and even my dreams!_ "Arrrrgh!"

"Kyou-chan?" Isamu called out to where she was gathering the gloves. "Is there a problem?"

"Ah… uh, no! No problem." Kyou realized that she had vocalized her frustration and caused the two men some concern. "I just jammed my finger a little on the shelf. I guess I was a little clumsy."

The two men looked at each other and back at Kyou. Both of them had the same thought. _Kyou-chan is a lot of things, but she is not clumsy. She is still suspicious. We need to get out of here._

.

A few minutes later the two men were walking down the street with their purchases and their tool boxes in the direction of the high school up on the hill. That wasn't their destination though. After a few blocks, they stopped and waited to see if there was any sign they were being followed.

"You think she was onto us?" Hiroki asked.

"For sure, she was suspicious about something." Isamu answered.

"It was just like The Boss told us, Kyou-chan is cunning and shrewd." Hiroki almost quoted the words that Tomoyo had used.

"She can tell just from your body language if you're lying so be very careful what you say around her." Isamu finished the briefing that Tomoyo had given them about the people they were likely to run into. None of the guys thought much of that briefing when she was giving it. After all, she was just talking about people they already knew anyway. But she had been right after all. Several times now, they had almost divulged secrets that could cause them serious problems because they had stepped into the trap of familiarity with people that reminded them of the ones they knew back in their own universe.

"All right, let's take a right here and head for the Okazaki house. I don't expect to see anything useful there since we already know Tomoya-kun is in Hokkaido now. But we can at least get that off the list." Isamu said as he headed down the intersecting street.

"Right boss." Hiroki answered as he followed Isamu.

"Don't call me boss." Isamu said flatly.

Hiroki only grunted a noncommittal response.

.

 **Tues** **day** **late** **afternoon** **,** **August** **2** **4** **–** **The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

"Yuki, listen to me." Tomoyo kept her voice under control while she tried to calm down her friend over the phone, "Just take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

"Thank you, senpai." Yuki's voice, on the other hand, sounded as if she was about to break down into tears. "My mother showed up here unexpectedly and… we had a fight."

"Are you okay?" Tomoyo asked. With the degree of skill that her tall protégé had mastered both volleyball and martial arts, there wasn't a lot of concern that Yuki was physically injured. However, every time the poor girl had to interact with her mother, it seemed like she had been emotionally and mentally tortured. In the beginning it seemed to take her weeks to recover from just a phone conversation. Yuki had become stronger over time, but Tomoyo still wished her young friend did not have to suffer that woman's evil when she was on her vacation.

"I'm not hurt." Yuki's voice sounded stronger to Tomoyo, "I just couldn't take it any more. She's been doing awful things…"

Tomoyo listened as her friend let it all out. All the pain, the anger that had built up over time. Her mother was an abusive person. She delighted in abusing the people around her. She had abused her own mother, her brother, her husband, and her daughter. To Yuki's knowledge, she never showed even the slightest sign of remorse. The words were condemning of her mother, but Tomoyo was able to pick up on the undercurrent of the message.

"Yuki, I am going to be unfair with you now." Tomoyo said.

"Senpai?" came back Yuki's startled response.

"I admit that I do not have the keen insight to read other people like Kyou, Tomoya, or even Youhei… but I have lived with you long enough that I can read you. I know what is really bothering you. Please do not be angry with me." Tomoyo said apologetically.

"Angry with you?" Yuki was afraid of what Tomoyo had figured out about her but confused as to why she should be angry with her senpai. "Why should I be angry with you?"

"To use what I know about you because of our closeness. It seems like that could be a betrayal… a breach of our friendship. I'm sorry…" Tomoyo started to apologize.

"No!" Yuki refused, "Don't you dare apologize for being close to me! Saying that we are close… that I am your friend! These are wonderful things that I could never hear enough. I love you senpai! You are the closest friend I have ever had. So tell me. Tell me what it is that is really bothering me. And then… if you know a way for me to fix it… tell me that too."

"Yuki… you are afraid." Tomoyo didn't want to say this any more than she wanted to have figured it out in the first place. It was something that Yuki probably should have figured out on her own, but… who could say if this wasn't right too. "You are afraid that you will become like your mother."

"Ah!" Yuki cried out. It was true. Her greatest fear had always been like a vice around her heart. The fear that she would, some day… become that which she most despised. After all, her mother had told her from an early age that some day… "She said that we were both alike and that some day, I would be just like her."

"A falsehood." Tomoyo countered.

"But… I am her daughter, so… she might be right!" Yuki cried in despair as she embraced the fears that had crippled her happiness all of her life.

Tomoyo looked at her phone but could not come up with a strong argument to counter Yuki. She wished she could be there to hold her friend in her moment of self loathing and sorrow, but she was far, far away. Her own desperation at not being able to help her friend was building when she heard a gentle voice call her name.

"Tomoyo-chan, may I speak to her for a moment?" Kotomi asked the platinum blond.

"Sure." Tomoyo looked up to see not only Kotomi, but also Tomoya and Kyou gathered around her.

"Yuki-chan, this is Kotomi-chan. Good morning." Kotomi said pleasantly.

"Um… good morning, Kotomi-chan." Yuki replied even though she knew it wasn't morning in either of the places where they were.

"Yuki-chan, if I understand the situation, you are concerned that you will become like your mother because you are her daughter. Is that correct?" Kotomi asked directly.

"Yes." Yuki wondered how Kotomi knew about all of this, but there was no point in denying it.

"I can completely disprove that hypotheses. Would you like to hear my argument?" Kotomi offered.

"Uh… yes!" Yuki's own fears were deep rooted so she wondered what kind of high tech mumbo jumbo Kotomi would use to rip out years of being told that her fate to be like her mother was inevitable.

"Before I give you my argument, I would like to hear your description of your Obāsan. I have met her a few times, but I would like to confirm my analysis." Kotomi asked.

"Um… okay." If Yuki didn't know Kotomi, she would wonder about the use of the word analysis in that comment, but it was not unlike Kotomi to use technical words in interpersonal descriptions. "Obāsan is a kind and wonderful person. She is caring… and loving… and…"

"Very good, that was my impression as well." Kotomi instructed, "Now, with the thoughts of your Obāsan and your Okāsan in your mind. Tell me in what ways they are similar."

"Um… similar huh?" Yuki imagined them standing side by side, "They have the same eye color and they are the same height."

"Really?" I thought your mother was a bit taller." Kotomi queried.

"No, she was probably wearing heels when you saw her." Yuki replied.

"So then, how are they similar in personality and disposition?" Kotomi asked.

"Hah!" Yuki laughed, "They're not remotely the same. It's like they're from different planets."

"Here then is my counter to your hypotheses: you are as likely to become like your mother because you are her daughter, as your Okāsan was likely to become like your Obāsan because she was her daughter." Kotomi offered her evidence, then waited for the response.

Checkmate.

Like an eraser removing the ugly graffiti left on a blackboard, Yuki could feel years of amassed fear being wiped away. The fears that had been planted in her over the years had been deep rooted, but the love and respect she had for her Obāsan had been deeper still. Kotomi's argument was incontrovertible in her mind. Obāsan had always been with her in her heart as a defense against even her mother's cruelest attacks, but Kotomi had liberated the spirit of Obāsan from her role as a defending saint and given her new power as an avenging angel. Wherever the lingering oppression and fear hid and festered in her mind and soul, it was no match for Obāsan's love. Yuki blinked her eyes and noticed for the first time how amazingly colorful the world was.

"Yuki-chan? Are you still there?" Kotomi asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes… thank you very much, Kotomi-sama. May I speak to senpai again please?" Yuki asked almost reverently.

"Of course." Kotomi answered and passed the phone back to Tomoyo.

"Yuki?" Tomoyo asked when she got her phone back.

"Senpai, are we on speaker-phone?" Yuki thought to ask.

"No." Tomoyo answered after double checking the icon.

"Good… Kotomi-sama is scary." Yuki sighed. She was still amazed at the changes still going on inside her.

"Yes, I would have to agree." Tomoyo thought of the recent conversation when she discovered that Kotomi had sent four of her friends to another universe without even considering that she should provide them with a way to communicate back.

"But… I mean it in a good way." Yuki felt as if all the energy had been drained from her body and yet revitalized at the same time. "I think I'm going to rest for a while now. Thank you senpai. And please thank Kotomi-sama for me. I don't think I could ever thank her enough if I lived to be a thousand years old."

"Okay. I'll call you back later, okay?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yes… thank you senpai." Yuki replied before she ended her cell call.

Tomoya was about to ask how the kids were doing when their attention was drawn to one of the senior technicians running up to them.

"Kotomi-hakase!" the lab coated man called out, "We need you at the test site now!"

"Why? What's wrong?" Kotomi asked even as she was moving out from underneath the staging area's canopy.

"We're getting feedback on the test signal!" the tech told her.

"What's going on?" Tomoyo asked as she too got to her feet.

"Are all of the trucks still in position?" Kotomi asked the tech as she broke into a trot towards the test area.

"Yes, hakase."

"Charge all of the particle accelerators as quickly as possible. Let me know as soon as they are ready."

"What's going on?" Tomoyo demanded.

"I had arranged for a test signal to be sent every hour to record different energy values." Kotomi explained without slowing down, "Feedback could indicate that they are trying to come back early."

"So… they're in trouble?" Tomoyo feared the worst.

"There are many possibilities, but that is certainly one of them." Kotomi replied.

 _Dammit Kotomi! Why did I ever let all of you talk me into this madness? If anything happened to them, I…_ Tomoyo was extremely upset both with this ill conceived experiment and with herself. She would like to break all of those forsaken trucks with her bare hands and beat Kotomi's head until she couldn't remember how to build something like this again… but she would never do that. _If anything happened to them, I'_ _ll probably leave this town for good. Who knows… maybe I'll leave anyway._


	11. Chapter 11 - Coming Home

**Fri** **day** **early morning** **,** **A** **pril 14** **–** **The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery** **(Alternate Universe 1)**

* * *

"Why aren't they picking us up?" Kenta mumbled through chattering teeth. The four of them had been waiting in the cold for several hours now… and several hours had passed since the time they were supposed to be picked up.

"I dunno." Isamu wasn't in much better shape than Kenta but they were all in a lot better shape than if they hadn't had the survival blankets and gloves. If they made it through this, they would all owe Hiroki a steak dinner. Interestingly, Hiroki was the only one that didn't seem affected by the cold. From the comfort of the thin survival blanket, he was looking out at the stars in the clear spring sky overhead.

"Hiroki, what are you lookin for?" Takeo asked his friend.

"Might see a meteor shower tonight." Hiroki answered. He knew it was a little early. The paper said the peak activity would be on the twenty-second, but still… he might see something.

"There's no way you're going to convince me you guys are out here to look at stars." Kyou said as she stepped out of the shadow's of the trees. There was still a full moon in the sky and the park was pretty well lit for being in the middle of the night. The four men saw a warmly dressed figure with long straight hair, but they could tell from the voice who it was.

"Kyou-chan!" all but Hiroki exclaimed.

"What the hell is this? Some kind of suicide pact where you slowly freeze to death under the moon and stars?" she demanded.

"No… uh… we're just waiting on our ride." Isamu tried to stick to his story.

"Your ride is going to pick you up in the middle of center field? What is it, a helicopter?" Kyou asked derisively.

"Listen, Kyou-chan… this isn't any of your concern. You should just walk away and forget you ever met us."

"I'll decide what is my concern and what isn't!" Kyou yelled at them, "Now I want some honest answers and I want them now. Or I'll call the police and let them sort this out."

"Please don't call the police on them." Nagisa pleaded as she called out to Kyou.

"Nagisa-chan?" all four of the men cried out at seeing another person in the place where they were supposed to secretly disappear.

"Who are you?" Kyou asked the new person, "Are you with them?"

"With them?" Nagisa asked the abrasive sounding woman.

"Are you in this suicide pact… or whatever it is they're doing out here?" Kyou demanded.

"No, I'm Furukawa Nagisa." Nagisa pointed back the way she had come, "I live at the Furukawa Bakery right over there. But these men came to our shop this morning and did a lot of work for us. They fixed a lot of things that had been broken for a long time… and all they asked for it was nine thousand yen. That's why I'm sure they're not bad people… so please don't call the police on them." Nagisa said nervously.

"Nagisa-chan," Isamu asked, "What are you doing out here? You should get back inside where it's warm… before it makes you sick."

"I came out to look at the stars before the bakery opens. I do this every morning when the sky is clear." Nagisa answered.

"Furukawa?" Kyou thought for a moment, "Are you the girl that quit school when you got sick?"

"Eep!" Nagisa reacted when it looked as if Kyou was glaring at her.

"Hey, don't give Nagisa-chan a hard time!" Kenta challenged, "I heard about you Kyou-chan. Where has your spirit gone, huh? Are you really the same girl that almost killed Okazaki Tomoya with a dictionary because you thought he was being mean to your sister? Why aren't you in college now? Why have you given up that fight?"

"I am fighting that fight!" she yelled back at the voice in the darkness, "I'm going to a community college."

"That's bullshit. I'm talking about the fight with your father. Why are you such a coward when it comes to him?" Kenta shot back.

"That's it!" Kyou held up her cell phone with her finger on the buttons, "You guys know way too much about my private life. I'm calling the police if I don't hear something real convincing real fast."

"All right… but… I swear I'll tell you the truth, but… I don't know how convincing it will sound. Just, please… please don't call the cops." Isamu begged.

"Start talking." Kyou didn't push the button but she didn't yet make the call either.

"We are from another world that is a lot like this one…" Isamu started.

"Oh, so now you're just going to regurgitate some crappy anime you watched?" Kyou said with disgust.

"No, I'm serious. In our world, you and Nagisa-chan are practically sisters-in-law." Isamu told them.

"Huh? Are you saying that I marry her brother?" Kyou asked.

"I don't have a brother." Nagisa said.

"Neither do I. I only have a twin sister." Kyou turned back to Isamu thinking she had caught him in a lie.

"Yeah… about that… so, Nagisa-chan is in a relationship with Ryou-chan." Isamu said as gently as he could.

"What?" both Nagisa and Kyou reacted.

"So… once again, I'm the one all alone?" Kyou felt anger and betrayal that her sister leaves her even in some fantasy world that strangers were making up.

"You're not alone." Isamu didn't know how much he should tell them but he could see that she was not reacting well to what she had just heard. "In our world, you are in a relationship with Okazaki Tomoya."

"The delinquent?" Nagisa gasped.

"You've heard of him?" Kyou asked.

"Just his name. From what I heard, he was the one responsible for the trap that dropped a wash basin on my head in my third year."

"That was you?" Kyou remembered that event well. She had beaten Tomoya and Youhei black and blue for that prank.

"Boss! We got a signal!" Takeo shouted in relief and excitement.

"Don't call me boss!" Isamu whacked Takeo on the back of the head but not too hard. He was relieved to hear that they had a signal too.

"A signal? What are you talking about?" Kyou put her cell phone in the air to remind them that she could still call the police at a moment's notice.

"Kyou-chan, I don't have much time so please listen." Isamu faced the two girls as all four men now stood back to back and flipped their visors down.

"Thirty seconds!" Takeo announced.

"In my world, the two of you are good friends. Nagisa has the courage to go off to college with Ryou-chan and Kyou-chan is the boss of a new program at a local elementary school. Kyou-chan talked her dad into that future by promising him that she would get two degrees in college. She got the education degree that she always wanted, and she got another degree in the subject that her father chose."

"Five seconds!" Takeo shouted.

"What?" Nagisa pointed at the strange light baubles that were flowing toward the four men standing together. "What is that?"

"Three!"

"What is what?" Kyou asked. She could still see only the four guys stupidly wearing visors in the dark.

"Two!"

"Ah! What are they doing to them?" Nagisa cried out as she clung to Kyou in fear of the white baubles that now completely obscured the men.

One!

"Who is _they_?" Kyou demanded, but Nagisa was too frightened to reply. Kyou looked up again to try and see whatever it was that was frightening Nagisa so much and noticed… the men weren't there any more. She looked around, but there was no sign of them at all. Pulling the flashlight out of her pocket, she looked around for any trace that they had ever been here and her light fell on something in the grass. Pulling Nagisa along with her, she came upon the place where the four men had been sitting and saw something familiar in the grass. Four cheap plastic _Big Dango Family_ themed thermoses lay discarded in the grass.

"Hmpf. They really did only need them for one night." Kyou commented.

"Huh?" Nagisa asked. She was still holding onto the sleeve of Kyou's jacket and was still afraid. She saw the thermoses lying in the grass too, but didn't understand Kyou's reference.

"I sold these thermoses to them this afternoon. They said they would only need them for one night. I thought that was strange enough, and then the big ugly guy…" Kyou was interrupted in her story.

"Don't call him ugly! Hiroki-kun is a big teddy bear." Nagisa fumed at Kyou even though she kept holding onto the taller girl's sleeve.

"Okay," Kyou now looked at Nagisa as if the girl's sanity should be in question, "Anyway, Hiroki-kun insisted on buying these old dango thermoses…" Kyou was again interrupted.

"Dango!" Nagisa stooped and picked up the nearest thermos and looked at the printed pattern in the pale moonlight. She couldn't make out the colors but she could see the shapes and knew what it was. "They… they really did know us in another world, didn't they?"

"Do these thermoses mean something to you?" Kyou asked the teary eyed girl still clinging to her.

"The dango's do." Nagisa said, "I've always loved the Big Dango Family, but… only my family and my closest friends know that."

"How many close friends do you have?" Kyou asked.

"Just you." Nagisa pulled her eyes away from the design on the mug and looked back at Kyou. Realizing what she had just said, she quickly let go of Kyou's sleeve and took a step back. "I'm sorry. That was the other Nagisa and the other Kyou. I shouldn't assume."

Kyou stooped to pick up another of the thermoses. Looking at the dango family print, she made a decision. Taking a few steps, she retrieved all the discarded thermoses.

"I think we can be friends." Kyou took a step toward Nagisa and handed her all the thermoses. "You can have these. They are all paid for and… I think your friends left them for you anyway."

"Th… thank you, Kyou-chan… I mean, Kyou-san." Nagisa took the four thermoses in her gloved hands.

"No no. If we're going to be friends, you are going to have to call me Kyou-chan and I will call you Nagisa-chan." Kyou insisted while she put her hand on Nagisa's back and turned her toward the Furukawa Bakery.

"Oh… okay." Nagisa felt warm then. It had always been difficult for her to make friends and Kyou was saying…

"Furukawa Bakery, huh? Let's head over there and have a little chat. I want to find out what other things we might have in common. I mean, besides my silly sister who fell in love with you… in another world."

.

 **Tues** **day** **late** **afternoon** **,** **August** **2** **4** **–** **The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Another blast of light in the face greeted the four men when they reappeared in the baseball field.

"Endothermic or exothermic?" Kotomi called out to them as she ran toward the four men that had collapsed to the ground as soon as they reappeared.

"Huh?" Isamu was barely able to grunt.

Before anyone else could say anything, he felt a body slide into his and heard Tomoyo's voice call out, "They're cold! They're freezing cold!"

Kotomi stopped running and considered her options. The recovery team had medical equipment, food, and drink, but they didn't have anything to quickly heat or cool someone. That had been an oversight. One that she would correct on the next attempt. But for now, what? It was the hottest part of August, so they had that on their side. In fact, all of her technicians were on the verge of overheating…

"Pile on!" Kotomi called out to her stunned technicians, "Pile on their bodies and give them your stored heat energy. It will warm them up and it will cool you down."

"You heard the lady!" Takeshi grabbed the nearest hesitating tech and pulled him down onto the shivering Hiroki.

"Youse commin wit me!" Iwao grabbed two techs and made a grand dog pile on top of Kenta.

"Dibs!" was all Ryota said before grabbing a surprised tech and landing on Takeo.

"Nobody sez you're immune." Mikio rasped as he grabbed Tomoya's arm and pulled him over to climb on Isamu… where Tomoyo already was.

"Why…" Isamu was able to ask once his teeth stopped chattering, "why did you wait so long to pick us up?"

"Huh?" Tomoyo responded, "But, you came back early!"

"What?" Isamu was confused "We waited for almost five hours past the pickup time."

"That's impossible! It's just now the afternoon of the same day you left." Tomoyo was having a hard time coming to grips with this discrepancy.

"Dimensional elasticity. Or… mismatch." Kotomi commented to one of the techs standing nearby as she squatted near Isamu's head to better hear him. Standing and walking amongst the others she called out, "I need to know if any of you feel like the returnee is sucking the heat out of your body at an unexplainable rate. Specifically if you feel like the heat is being sucked out of your body, but the returnee does not appear to be warming up. Or, is the body returning to a normal temperature as it should?"

"I'm good now." Hiroki pushed himself up despite Takeshi and one of the techs still lying on top of him. He left them sitting in the grass where he had fallen and stripped off the thermal blanket and gloves as he walked over to Kotomi while other voices reported that the others were warming up as expected.

Not able to read Hiroki's face, Kyou moved up beside Kotomi and wished Tomoya wasn't still on the ground.

"I thought you'd want to see this, hakase." Hiroki pulled the two newspapers out of his coveralls and handed them to the purple haired genius. Before Kotomi could look at anything, the stout man's belly rumbled an anguished cry of hunger.

"What is more important to you now: sleep, or food?" Kotomi asked.

"Food!" all four of the men answered.

"I see. I am unfamiliar with the appropriate social custom except to suggest this: In my college days, we celebrated a breakthrough with a steak dinner. Of course, that was Texas and this is Japan, so that may not be to your liking."

"No no! A steak dinner is just fine, Kotomi-chan!" Kenta hollered from where he was now crawling out from underneath three bodies.

"Very well." Kotomi put the two newspapers under her arm and unlocked her phone. After a few swipes, she had found a place but paused when it came time to call and… talk to someone.

"Phone!" Kyou said with her arm extended to Kotomi.

"Thank you, Kyou-chan!" Kotomi handed over her phone and pulled out the newspapers again to look them over. The headline seemed odd, and then she saw the date. "2006?"

"Yes." Hiroki answered simply.

"Fascinating." Kotomi replied. Her eyes were open wide, but it was clear that she wasn't seeing the world around her. Her mind was processing what she now knew against the previous conjecture and forcing the evolution of a whole new understanding. A lesser mind would crack under the pressure, but the people that saw Kotomi that day would swear that her eyes were glowing and she wore an exultant smile.

.

 **Wednes** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **5** **–** **Ichinose** **House**

* * *

The previous day's celebration would have gone into the night except that the honorees were all exhausted. Knowing that they would soon need rest, Kotomi had insisted on sitting at the same table and questioning them while they had their dinner.

The next morning, Kotomi was sitting around the kitchen table with Kobayashi Jun, Tomoya, Kyou, Tomoyo, and Isamu. Koumura was in the kitchen with one of his assistants preparing a breakfast for everyone.

"You… you recorded everything they did?" Tomoyo sounded as if she was just barely able to keep her anger under control. "You don't do something like that without consent!"

"Oh?" Kotomi seemed nonplussed at Tomoyo's restrained rage. Turning to Isamu she asked him, "You did not have the understanding that your actions would be recorded?"

"No." Isamu answered simply. He didn't know why Tomoyo was so upset. It didn't really bother him any. It's not like they would use it as evidence to put him in jail or anything.

"I had understood that they were told they would be explorers like Gagarin or Armstrong. Was this not so?" Kotomi asked.

"Yeah," Isamu admitted, "Yukine-sama told us that."

"Did you not know that everything they did was recorded and much of it was monitored live, by a room full of people. They even wore medical harnesses that tracked and recorded their body functions." Kotomi seemed disappointed that they had not understood this implicitly.

Tomoyo hated the fact that Kotomi was right. She hated the fact that she hadn't anticipated something like this. She hated the vast number of unknowns that made this endeavor so risky. Risky for people she was responsible for. She was about to stand and announce that she wanted out. Out of this project. Out of the local government. Out of this town. Before she could explode, a calmer voice spoke up.

"Kotomi-chan," Isamu explained his point of view. "Those guys… Gagarin and Armstrong… they was the best that their officer corps had to offer, right?"

"That's true." Kotomi confirmed.

"We ain't that." Isamu reminded Kotomi, "We were picked because nobody would miss us if anything happened. Not because we were the best or most highly trained at this. We're doin the best we can, but if we ain't bright enough, maybe you should find someone else.

"You have a point." Kotomi considered. "I may have made an improper judgment, but there are two serious flaws with your statement that I feel must be addressed first. Most importantly is this belief that you were picked because nobody would miss you. That is a fallacy. More correctly, you were chosen because you have no-one who depends on you – like a child or invalid relative. But, you should not construe that to believe you would not be missed. You have many friends that would be greatly grieved if you were not to come back. There is an eighty-three percent chance that Tomoyo-chan would need grief counseling and perhaps hospitalization if something were to happen to you personally."

"Kotomi!" Tomoyo stood and faced Kotomi despite her face turning beet red.

"Tomoyo-chan, do you want me to stop or shall I disabuse the other fallacy?" Kotomi calmly asked her startled friend.

"Go… go ahead." Tomoyo said while taking her seat again.

"The second fallacy is that you believe you are not good enough and that there is someone else out there that could do a better job because they are smarter or more highly trained. This is patently untrue. Gagarin and Armstrong had the benefit of being test pilots before flying rockets. This exploration has no precursor. The best fit for this job is someone that knows the environment, can think on their feet, and can blend into the background as much as possible. From the recordings I have seen, you and your entire team have performed far, far better than expected."

Tomoyo and Isamu stared at Kotomi with blank expressions on their faces.

"Tomoya-kun, why are they looking at me like that?" Kotomi felt it was a bit odd and wondered if their brains had simultaneously seized up.

"They are probably surprised that you think they did such a good job." Tomoya suggested.

"Yeah… we ended up telling Kyou and Nagisa everything." Isamu admitted.

"True, but it was for a good reason and it looked to me like it might have done them some good." Kotomi looked down at the folder in front of her for a moment, considered, and then suggested, "Why don't we take a few minutes to go through the differences between that world, this one, and what we know of a probable Ushio universe?"

"Umm…" Kyou was about to suggest that doing that kind of exercise might be uncomfortable for some people in the room, but Kotomi was pressing on.

"Chronologically speaking, the first difference would be that I am dead in that universe." Kotomi said without emotion.

Several people at the table marveled at Kotomi that she could be so unconcerned about it.

"I guess the next difference would be that Nagisa never went back to school after getting sick in her first time through her third year. And that means – she never met Ryou-chan." Tomoya added.

"After I graduated, I had a fight with my dad and didn't end up going to a university." Kyou grumbled not so much for that as for the Kyou in that universe ending up all alone.

"After I graduated, I went to Hokkaido to university on a scholarship. Tomoya either went with me or came up later, but we are living together there." Tomoyo said while keeping her eyes on her fingertips.

"I didn't hear anything about a scholarship?" Kyou challenged.

"Well, unless the family that the other universe Tomoyo has is radically different from the one I have, that would be the only way she would be able to afford it."

"Finally, that universe did include a living Tomoya and Nagisa, but there was no Ushio and with the environment set as we understand it, there would never be an Ushio there."

"Why is that important?" Isamu asked.

"That theory is still unchanged, I believe we are piggybacking our gateways to other worlds over the Ushio entity's discarded connections. She must have made hundreds of thousands of connections in her search for a compatible universe where she could live with her mother and father." Kotomi stated.

"But, how did this Ushio entity make the connections in the first place? Is she another genius like Kotomi?" Tomoyo asked.

"Not with _those_ parents." Kyou chuckled.

"Hey!" Tomoya reacted as if he had just been stabbed in the back.

"Kidding!" Kyou giggled and squirmed away from Tomoya's fingers.

"Breakfast is ready." Koumura saved Kyou from Tomoya's retaliatory tickle attack with the arrival of several plates of delicious food.

"Ooooh!" Kyou's hunger had been building for a while as she smelled the food cooking from the adjacent kitchen and she was ready to dig in when she heard her phone going off. At first she was tempted to let it roll to voice mail, but the ring tone was unique. Excitedly, she made her excuses and launched herself away from the table.

"Ryou!" she answered the phone as soon as she was in the living room.

"Onee-chan!" Ryou's distinct voice came back to greet her. Kyou could tell in an instant, from the tone of her sister's voice that whatever she was calling for wasn't bad news. The sounded far too cheerful for anything to be wrong.

"What wonderful news does my little sister have for me this morning?" Kyou asked.

"How did you know?" Ryou was stunned and wondered how her big sister could know if she just found out.

"From the way you sound, silly! I can tell you have something good to tell me. So, what is it? Are you top of the class? Did Nagisa get a part in a play? Are you doing well in the special summer session you're taking?" Kyou prodded her sister.

"Oh yes! Well, I'm not top of my class and Nagisa didn't get a part in a play, but I am doing well in the summer session. Well enough that they picked me for part of a special program where I'll finish the rest of medical school at a regional hospital." Ryou said.

"A regional hospital eh?" Kyou thought that sounded dubious. _Is this just the Ministry of Health trying to get more health care workers out to understaffed rural hospitals?_ She wondered if she should caution her sister about accepting such an offer. _But maybe I'm just being paranoid for my sister again._ Kyou decided to ask, "Do you know what hospital you'll be going to?"

"Yes!" Ryou now sounded more excited than ever, "Onee-chan… I'm coming home!"

.

 **Satur** **day** **morning** **,** **August** **2** **8** **–** **The Okazaki Farm in Hokkaido**

* * *

Yuki and the children were all packed and their things were loaded up in Obāsan's car. They had originally planned to leave a day later, but all the weather forecasters were agreeing that Typhoon Kompasu would be hitting Northern Japan or Hokkaido in a few days. As much as Obāsan and Ojiisan wanted their grandchildren to stay, all agreed that it would be better for Yuki and the children if they were not on the trains when the typhoon hit.

"I love you, Obāsan!" Michiko hugged the old woman. Ever since the shopping trip, the young girl and the old woman had become very close. Michiko now felt terribly torn; at her age she could become very emotional when she had to part from someone she loved. Having come to love her great-grandmother, she didn't want to leave. At the same time, she did want to go home and see her father, mothers, and Yoichi.

"I don't like it!" Michiko cried as she held onto her Obāsan's kimono.

"Jeez, she's really bawling this time." Shuichi said as he clung to Naoyuki's big hand. Since he and Shuji were Michiko's older brothers, they were trying their best not to cry too.

"Now, now… don't be so upset. I'm going to invite everyone to come and visit over the winter break too, so we will see each other again in just a few months." Obāsan said soothingly.

"Months!" Michiko and the boys gasped. To the aged Obāsan, the passage of only three or four months was nothing to fret over, but to a five or six year old, it sounded like an eternity.

"Hey kids!" Yuki clapped her hands to get their attention, "After we get home, school is going to start back up. You're going to have Yoichi, Yasuo, and Maiko to play with. There will be a sports day, a Koyo trip, and the cultural festival. And before you know it, so many days will go by that you will all be shocked that it's already time to see Obāsan and Ojiisan again!"

"What's a Koyo trip?" Shuji asked.

"What's a sports day?" Michiko asked.

"What's a cultural festival?" Shuichi asked.

"Huh?" Yuki was shocked for a moment before she remembered, "I'm sorry guys. Sometimes I forget that this is your first year in Japan. How about if Obāsan and I tell you about all these wonderful things while Ojiisan drives us to the train station, okay?"

The two boys cheered. Even if she didn't cheer and was still holding onto her Obāsan's kimono, Michiko was at least smiling again.

.

 **S** **un** **day** **afternoon** **,** **August** **2** **9** **–** **The Okazaki** **House (where the Sunohara's live)**

* * *

Yukine read the text message from her phone after finishing the dishes. The message brought a smile to her lips just as Youhei came into the kitchen while reading a message on his own phone and looking concerned. "What's going on? Police business?"

"No… well yes. Sort of." Youhei plopped down into a chair and scratched his head as he reread the message. "It's from Tomoya. Their science experiment was successful, but they are requesting a police presence for the next time."

"When is the next time?" Yukine asked while sitting down next to her husband.

"September 21st. At least he's giving us plenty of notice." Youhei sounded a bit relieved at that.

"This isn't just some kind of scheme to let you get close to Tomoyo-chan again, is it?" Yukine asked jokingly.

"No!" Youhei almost dropped his phone when he emphatically replied. He was still getting reminded that his wife came home from her vacation to find him alone in the house with a sleeping Tomoyo.

"So… what's the problem?" Yukine asked. At the same time, she had to fight to keep herself from laughing at his reaction to her little barb.

"I'm worried that something must have gone wrong. They never discussed needing a police presence before." Youhei tried to think of why they might suddenly have a requirement like that.

"Yu-kun, you are very good at puzzling things out, but sometimes you can be such a dummy." Yukine said as she smiled at her husband.

"What?" Youhei didn't often hear Yukine say something like that to him, but when she did, it was usually because he was overlooking something obvious.

"Tomoya-kun is your best friend. If you are concerned, just call him." Yukine said as she got up from the table.

"Good idea. Where are you going?" he asked Yukine.

"I get to go give our brooding young son some happy news. Yuki texted me a little while ago. A storm is heading for Hokkaido so she is bringing the Okazaki kids home a few days early. They'll be arriving this evening." she told him.

"Heh!" Youhei chuckled as he pulled up Tomoya's phone number on his cell, "Oh yeah, that should make him pretty happy. You know he is going to insist that you take him to meet them at the train station."

"Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way!" Yukine giggled as she left the room.

.

"Youhei?" Tomoya asked when he answered the phone.

"Toilet seat cover!" Youhei shouted into the phone.

"Baka!" Tomoya laughed at the reminder of their old antics.

"I got your text message." Youhei then proudly told his friend, "But I'm a detective now so you'll have to process that request with the regular uniform officers."

"Oh, I did better than that." Tomoya smiled as he realized just how marvelously he was going to deflate Youhei's ego balloon.

"Eh?" Youhei heard something in his friend's voice that sounded like trouble.

"I made the request to the Chief of Police in the Mayor's office." Tomoya said.

"You… you know the Chief of Police and the Mayor?" Youhei gaped.

"Not until last Friday. Kobayashi-hakase invited me along. You remember him, don't you?" Tomoya asked his friend.

"Yes." Youhei wondered if Tomoya could somehow see his building panic over the phone. _What did you do Tomoya? And why do I feel like this is somehow going to end up being my problem?_ "So, what did you guys have to talk about?"

"Oh, not much really. Hakase and I let them know that the first test had been successful but there were enough irregularities that we will probably want to have the baseball field sealed off, or at least have crowd control there to clear the area." Tomoya said.

"Irregularities?" Youhei asked.

"Yeah. Without getting into too many details, there was some kind of time dilation thing and the team came back several hours earlier than expected." Tomoya replied.

"Is that a problem? I mean, the fact that they came back early." Youhei unexpectedly found himself getting interested in this. Kotomi's usual science mumbo-jumbo usually left him with a mild headache, but with Okazaki explaining it…

"Coming back early wasn't a problem. What concerns us is what would happen if the team needed to come back early but the park was full of people or if there was a baseball game going on." Tomoya pointed out.

"Yeah, good thinking. So what are they going to do?" Youhei wondered.

"Well, the Inspector is already busy with commitments to the Prefecture with disaster recovery planning, so the Mayor was thinking that the Police Department might get a Detective to head this up." Tomoya smiled as he waited for the inevitable response.

"You… you didn't." Youhei hoped, but the sinking feeling was telling him otherwise.

"I did." Tomoya smirked.

"You jerk! I just got my first real assignment!" Youhei fumed.

"You think that reviewing old cold case files will be more interesting than this?" Tomoya asked… and let Youhei know that he already know of his short friend's first assignment.

"Of course it will be more interesting than doing crowd control! Tomoya, in police work, nobody likes doing crowd control. It's hours of boredom in uncomfortable gear, with the possibility of intense terror if some idiot comes to the party with a bomb, or poison gas, or if there's a riot." Youhei argued.

"Hey hey," Tomoya realized that he might actually have done his friend a disservice that he didn't deserve, "This shouldn't be anything like that. This is no political rally or protest. It's a science experiment. We just need the cops to keep the public safe. You guys can probably do this job wearing gym clothes… and a badge."

"That's great. So this will be the hours of boredom without the possibility of terror. That's so much better." Youhei said sarcastically.

"Listen… this was supposed to be a surprise, but you sound pretty upset. So, keep this under you hat, okay?" Tomoya said conspiratorially.

"What?" Youhei's attitude wavered. The bait of being let in on an operational secret was enticing.

"In the next mission, the survey team is going to check up on Yukine." Tomoya revealed.

"Eh?" Youhei had heard from Yukine how similar the other world versions of Kyou and Nagisa had been, but how dramatically different their situations were. It would be interesting to find out how the Yukine from another world was faring. Then it occurred to him, "What about me?"

"Yeah, I suggested that but it isn't really possible unless you ended up staying in the area." Tomoya replied.

"What do you mean?" Youhei asked.

"The survey teams are on foot and only have twenty to twenty-five hours to do everything we ask of them. You and Mei aren't from around here. To be able to get out there, they would need to get a job, earn enough money for transportation there and back, get there, find you, interrogate you, and get back. There just isn't enough time." Tomoya said apologetically.

"But, if I am in the area… I mean… if the other me is in the area. They would look me up, wouldn't they?" Youhei asked.

"Yeah, I guess they would… unless you were a cop in the other universe." Tomoya was thinking about it. No-one had actually come up with a plan to deal with an other-world Sunohara encounter, but it was possible that he might still be in the area.

"What's wrong with cops?" Youhei asked with a bit of injured pride.

"Nothing is wrong with the cops in this universe, but they've been told to avoid contact with any authorities in the other universes." Tomoya thought he had been over this with Youhei before and wondered why he was reacting so defensively.

"I think you're assuming the worst about cops." Youhei said.

"Oh really? Then tell me, oh great and powerful detective… What do you think a cop would do if he ran into some guys that had no identification, no money, couldn't tell you where they lived or where they came from, and were carrying things in their tool boxes that might be weapons?" Tomoya grinned. He already knew the answer to this. Even two of the five criteria was enough to require a cop to bring the stranger in for questioning.

"Okay… they would probably be arrested." Youhei admitted, "I guess they really should avoid the authorities."

"So… do you still want out? I can always make some calls and try to get you out of it." Tomoya offered.

"No, I'll do it. This might be interesting after all. Anyways, it's just one day, right?" Youhei tried to put a cheerful spin on it.

"Well… one day a month." Tomoya spelled it out, "The next three dates are September 21st, October 19th, and November 16th. There may be more, but they haven't been scheduled yet."

"Huh..." Youhei was circling the dates on a calendar and noticed something, "Always Tuesdays? Is there something special about Tuesdays that makes it easier to go to parallel dimensions?"

"Baka!" Tomoya yelled at Youhei over the phone, "This is science, not some lame superstition!"

"Sorry!" Youhei suddenly felt stupid for asking such a question, "Forget I ever said that!"

"I will. Look, I gotta go. But thanks for doing this."

"Sure, no problem." Youhei hung up the phone but kept looking at the screen. "Tuesdays… yeah, that was stupid. Why do I keep saying stupid things?"

.

 **S** **un** **day** **afternoon** **,** **August** **2** **9** **–** **The** **Ichinose** **House**

* * *

Tomoya put the phone down on the table beside the couch and looked down at the mass of purple hair in his lap. She had been napping for a while but it was about time to get ready to head for the train station to pick up Yuki and the kids.

"Kotomi-chan?" Softly running his fingers through her hair, Tomoya called to her.

"Tomoya-kun?" Kotomi answered even before her eyes flickered open.

"It's about time to go to the train station." he reminded her.

"How did the conversation go with Youhei-kun?" Kotomi asked as she stretched and sat up on the couch.

"He'll do it." Tomoya gave her an extreme summary. But there was one aspect of the conversation that was still bugging him. "Just out of curiosity, why are all the test dates on Tuesdays?"


	12. Chapter 12 - The Girls Are Back In Town

**Monday afternoon, August 30 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Although they were a long way from where the typhoon passed through Japan just south of Hokkaido, the skies and seas were still choppy enough that Tomoya had to cancel the last beach trip of the summer. Although the kids were disappointed, they were happy to be home. They were also delighted to be able to see their friends again, so they didn't take the loss of the beach trip too bad.

When the boys and Michiko talked about the extra time they spent with their Hokkaido relatives, Tomoya was happy for them but felt nothing melancholic or nostalgic. At least, not until they talked about going out to visit the field of flowers near the old lighthouse park. Overlapping images wafted into his consciousness. His mind's eye saw both the memories of the flowers from the height of a child, and the later memories of seeing it again with Kotomi and Kyou on the trip when he reconnected with his grandmother at the lighthouse park.

"Tomoya-kun, are you okay?" Kyou asked from where she had the blue-eyed Shuji in her lap. The look she had seen on his face was haunted and sad.

"I'm fine. I was just remembering that same field of flowers." he was about to say more but his phone started buzzing in his pocket. The screen showed it was Kobayashi-hakase.

"Hakase, I'm glad you called. I wanted to thank you again for having arranged those wonderful vacations for us." Tomoya said as soon as he answered the phone.

"If by _us_ you mean yourself and Kotomi-chan, then you're welcome. "But, you should know that the trip for all the others was already put together by Kyou, Yuki, and Yukine. When I mentioned that I wanted to send you and Kotomi away for your honeymoon, Kyou-chan proposed this other trip for the ladies and the kids."

"Will wonders never cease?" Tomoya asked. He had guessed that Yukine was in on this, but he wouldn't have guessed Kyou too. Nor would he have guessed his cousin Yuki, but now that he thought about how the trip did focus on Hokkaido, that did make sense too.

"But, fishing for praise is not why I called. We may have a problem." Kobayashi's voice now dropped to a concerned tone.

"Oh?" Tomoya got up from his chair in the den and wondered into the empty dojo where he could concentrate more on the conversation.

"The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has heard about Kotomi's big project and will be visiting soon." Kobayashi warned.

"How soon?" Tomoya asked. He also wondered why Kobayashi didn't say _the MEXT_ , instead of that outrageously long title.

"End of this week at the earliest. Maybe not until the beginning of next week." Kobayashi answered.

"So, before the next test is run." Tomoya tried to figure out the timing. _Why would anyone from the government want to visit now? During a test would be a much better time to see something tangible._

"We should prepare a response in case… in case the Ministry is thinking about taking over the project." Kobayashi suggested.

"So, you think that's their plan?" Tomoya asked.

"I don't know. But the ramifications of Kotomi's work are… huge. So, we shouldn't ignore that possibility." Kobayashi said.

"I see." Tomoya had an idea but it would take some work to get ready. "How likely do you think it is that the MEXT would try to take this away from Kotomi?"

"I don't know about taking it away. They might try to control it to the point that she is reduced to the functionality of a contributor only." Kobayashi considered Tomoya's question and told him, "I believe one of those two possibilities is very likely."

"I think… I have a plan." Tomoya could see it coming together in his mind. He would need Youhei to help make this whole thing truly sneaky and Kyou to reality check it. But he was pretty sure he could pull it off if he needed to.

"What do you need?" Kobayashi asked.

"I'll need the fastest flight you can find from Houston to Tokyo leaving tomorrow." Tomoya said.

"I can arrange that." Kobayashi didn't bother asking for details. He was a smart man and he could see the predicament now. Even though it was only late Sunday night in Texas, a lot of work would need to get done for someone to make a trans-Pacific flight leaving Tuesday morning. The person would not arrive in Japan until mid-afternoon the next day.

They both knew they would be cutting it close.

As soon as he was off the phone with Kobayashi-hakase, Tomoya was making an international call and hoping she wasn't already asleep.

.

 **Wednesday morning, September 1 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

"Rise… bow… be seated." The sole fifth grader led the class as Kyou entered the room with the tallest girl many of the students had ever seen in real life. Fortunately, Aoki Elementary was one of the newer schools, so Yuki didn't have to duck her head when she came through the doorway. At almost 180 centimeters, Yuki looked like a giantess to the kids in the classroom. Kyou had seen many people as tall as Yuki and Mei – and even taller, back when she was in college in Texas, but here in Japan, Yuki seemed unbelievably tall… for a girl.

"Class, this is a very good friend of mine. Her name is Okazaki Yuki and she is going to be observing this class for a while." Kyou told her students.

"Are you a teacher?" one of the second grade girls asked.

"No, I just graduated from college not too long ago and I'm still deciding what I want to do." Yuki answered.

"You sound funny." a first grade boy giggled.

"Well, I'm originally from Hokkaido, so I might sound like I have a bit of an accent to you." Yuki explained.

"Hokkaido? Really? Did you ever see one of the farms where they have cows?" the fifth grade boy asked.

"Sure. I grew up in a farming area so I saw lots of cows, pigs, sheep, horses, and chickens too." Yuki was glad that she could talk about something that would interest these children but the teacher had to put a stop to it before Yuki was overrun with questions.

"That's enough for now." Kyou interrupted the kid's avalanche of questions and gazed around the room, "Yuki-san will be able to answer all kinds of questions at lunch if you want, but right now we need to do some school work. Can any of you guess what I am going to ask for first?"

"The summer projects?" one of the second grade girls asked.

"That's right." Kyou was glad that someone remembered the warning that she had given them on the last day of summer break. She had told them that the first thing they would do when they got back would be to check the summer assignments. She did notice a look of sadness or resentment on the fifth grader's face though. Moving over to his desk, she asked him quietly, "Huyu, did you finish everything?"

"Yes, sensei." Huyu thought the teacher wanted to look over his work first so he started to pull it out of his pack.

"Was there a problem with the assignment?" Kyou asked.

"Huh?" Huyu looked up at his teacher and wondered why she would ask him that. "No, sensei."

"You looked like something was bothering you just now." Kyou was certain of her suspicion; she was good at reading body language and this boy's face conveyed his feelings like a flashing neon sign.

"Oh yeah… I couldn't get anyone to study with me over the summer." Huyu grumbled, "They all think I'm stupid."

"Hmmm?" Kyou had thought that he was talking about the other kids in his class at first, but he was the only fifth grade student in the room. _Then that would mean..._ "So, it's the kids from your old class that are avoiding you? Well, that would be their loss."

"Huh?" the boy wondered at his teacher's words.

"You are probably the best in all of fifth grade, and better than most in sixth grade at language arts, history, and science. A lot of your former classmates would have benefited from having you in a study session with them." Kyou laughed it off. "They will learn their mistakes soon enough. You just keep doing your best and before Sports Day comes around, you'll be having student's coming to you for help."

"I doubt it." Huyu brought up the thing that bothered him the most, "They know I'm dumb. They all know that I'm still doing fourth grade math."

"So they think you're a math idiot?" Kyou asked slyly.

Several students and the teaching assistant gasped. For a teacher to call a student an idiot was against all kinds of rules. Sure, there were teachers that did it, but they usually did it in private where nobody else would hear it. Never out in front of the whole classroom.

"What if I proved to you that you are not a math idiot? What if I was able to prove to you that you are actually a math prodigy instead?" Kyou smiled at the stunned boy.

"B… but I'm still doing fourth grade math… and I'm in fifth grade?" Huyu countered. It seemed to him that was proof enough that she was wrong.

"True, but it's not where you are, but how fast you're learning that proves to me that you are definitely not an idiot." Kyou lectured to the whole class with Huyu's progress as an example, "In the middle of June we went back to third grade math and found out what it was that tripped you up. Once we got past that, you finished third grade math around the middle of July. That means, you finished half a year of math in one month. Granted, that was material you had gone over once, but this time _you understood it!_ From the middle of July until now, we were interrupted by the summer break, but you are still more than a third of the way finished with fourth grade math. Do you know what that means?"

"Um… no?" Huyu thought it all sounded terrible so far but he could tell that Kyou-sensei was thrilled. The fact that she was thrilled was like a contagion and he was starting to feel excited too, even if he didn't know why yet.

"That means, if you keep going at this pace, you will finish with fourth grade math before the end of this month and start on fifth grade math. By the time the winter break is here, you will have caught up with your former classmates _and passed them!_ By the time this year is over, you will probably be halfway finished with sixth grade math." Kyou smiled at the now excited look on the boy's face.

"Do… do you really think so?" Huyu gaped.

"I do!" Kyou now turned to the rest of the class and told them, "That goes for all of you. Every single one of you is doing well. Even if you're still catching up in a subject from a lower grade level, it is the rate of improvement that I am looking at and you are all doing phenomenally well. I am proud of all of you!"

"Thank you, sensei!" the class gushed. All thoughts of her being a mean teacher for calling someone an idiot were dashed as they basked in the excitement of their own achievements, and the glow of her pride.

Kyou checked her barometers in the back of the room. Shuichi and Shuji were both giving her a thumbs up signal. Kyou smiled broadly and that smile was real. She was putting the things she had learned to work and they were showing significant results. Those results may not be as spectacular as Kotomi's science project, but they were important nonetheless.

The rest of the morning was spent going over the summer projects and letting the kids do their presentations. The younger ones talked about insects and butterflies. The third grade girl had stayed at a beach house with her family over the summer and had put together a presentation on seashells and starfish. Sure, the things that the younger kids did were things that the older kids had already seen, but they paid attention and clapped nevertheless. When lunch time finally rolled around, all of the students wanted to eat in the classroom since they had a lot of questions for the tall friend of their teacher. Yuki would discover that these children were fascinated with anything she could tell them about farm animals, and how deep the winter snow was in Hokkaido. Oh yes, they had lots of questions.

.

"This school doesn't look any different than my old school." Maiko sounded bored as she walked down the long sterile looking hallway. The people in the administration office had given them the directions to the room, but two of the three people in the party already knew the way.

"It's not the place that makes it different. It's the people." Tomoya said sagely. He had heard that quip before and had been amazed at the simplicity of the phrase. He understood it all too well, having lived through two years of uneventful and even despised high school life only to have it all change for the better when he met a new group of friends in his last year.

"I guess… I just want to play with Shuichi and Shuji!" Maiko chirped.

"Maiko-chan, you're not here to play." Fuko reminded her niece, "Remember what you promised Onee-chan!"

"I know. I know." Maiko sounded bored, "I promised Okāsan that I would behave myself and be a good student."

Tomoya could hear the bored overtones in Maiko-chan's response. He wasn't aware of her being a discipline problem, but he decided it would be a good idea to give her another reason to behave herself in her new class.

"Maiko-chan, have you ever seen Kyou-chan when she is angry?" Tomoya asked.

"No." Maiko answered.

"Do you know what a yōkai demon looks like?" Tomoya asked.

"Um… yeah. There was a parade of demons at the Jigokudani festival." Maiko replied brightly, then shivered, "Some of them were really scary looking."

"Well, if you don't want to see something even scarier than that, you better not make Kyou-chan angry." Tomoya warned the little girl.

"Tomoya-kun, that's mean! Kyou-chan is a very good person!" Fuko demanded.

"She is a good person and she is as sweet as candy when she's happy. But Fuko-chan, you have seen her when she is angry… haven't you?" Tomoya cocked an eyebrow at the short ikiryo girl.

"Ulp… yes. Fuko has seen… that." it looked as though all the blood was draining from her face as she remembered what an enraged Kyou looked like. Then Fuko turned to her little niece and suggested, "You should do your best. Don't make Kyou-chan angry, okay?"

"Um… okay." Maiko had thought her aunt and Tomoya-san were just being funny, but Fuko suddenly looked very worried. She wondered just how scary Kyou-san could be, but decided that she would rather not find out.

Kyou was waiting at the door of her classroom for them to arrive. Tomoya had texted her as soon as they had finished with all the paperwork and they were on their way to her classroom. She had a cheerful look on her face and squatted down to get eye level with Maiko-chan.

"We're having our lunch time right now so you can go on in and have lunch with the boys. We'll do the introductions when lunch is over, okay?" Kyou could see the little girl's delight that she would get to go in and have lunch with Shuichi and Shuji now.

"Yes!" Maiko yelped and ran into the room.

Standing back up, Kyou gave Tomoya a twisted smile.

"You know, when these hallways are full of kids, you can barely hear yourself. But when they are empty… like now… voices carry." Kyou smirked.

"Do they?" Tomoya asked uncomfortably.

"So I look like a yōkai demon, huh?" Kyou demanded an explanation.

Fuko looked pleased that Tomoya had been caught. She still didn't like him from the time he abandoned Ushio in the dying Illusionary World, so if he was about to get a punishment… all the better.

"The words may have carried, but they got jumbled along the way."

"Oh?" Kyou challenged.

"In fact, I said that you were _scarier_ than a yōkai demon… if someone is foolish enough to make you angry." Tomoya said as he reached out and touched her face, "But in terms of looks? You were always beautiful Kyou. Even when you were mad at me, I always thought you were exquisitely beautiful… and I still do."

Kyou's mouth opened to say something but froze as her face burned a fierce red. She finally looked away to try and hide her blush.

" _Exquisitely_ huh? When did you learn to use such pretentious words?" Kyou pouted.

"Law school." Tomoya chuckled, "Lawyers are nothing if not pretentious."

Tomoya would have liked to keep making Kyou blush, but his peripheral vision saw something beyond her in the classroom. A poster-board displaying numerous seashells and starfish. Quickly moving to block the doorway he turned to Fuko.

"Ah, Fuko! We've dropped off your niece so I guess you should be running along now!" Tomoya said quickly.

"What do you mean?" Fuko asked.

"Well, the Performance Club has been worried about you since the summer break started and this is the first day back to school. So you should go see them at lunch and let them know that you are all right." Tomoya said helpfully.

"Silly Tomoya-kun. Fuko is already there!" Fuko turned to run down the hallway and faded out of sight.

"What was that all about?" Kyou had a look on her face as if Tomoya had lost his mind.

Tomoya simply stood aside and pointed into the room at the poster-board.

"What? It's just a display of seashells and starfish… Ohhhhhh." Kyou blushed a bit at the fact that she had completely missed that connection. "So, I guess you're off to Tokyo now?"

"Yeah. I should get there in time to meet her at the airport." Tomoya checked the time on his cell phone and it still looked good.

"All right. Remember to get a cab when you get back to the station. She's going to be exhausted so don't make her walk!" Kyou warned as she headed back into her classroom.

Tomoya thought about reminding her that he has made that flight several times and knows perfectly well how tiring it is. But he also knew how Kyou liked to get the last word in a conversation, so he let it drop.

.

 **Fri** **day morning,** **September 3** **– The Mayor's Office**

* * *

Tomoya stood in the Mayor's office with a calm expression. Along with the mayor, chief of police, Kobayashi-hakase, his own special guest, and a few other city functionaries, he was there to greet an important visitor from Tokyo. Fortunately, he had now been here several times so it was a familiar surrounding for him. He knew most of the people in the room, so this visit by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or _the MEXT_ , was not as nerve wracking as it might have been.

Of all the people present, it was Tomoya's guest that stood out the most. At 177 centimeters, she was taller that most of the other men in the room, but the oddity didn't stop there. Her glimmering white floor length dress stood out amongst the dark gray and subdued blue business suits. But there was still more. Her long red curls of hair framed green eyes on a freckled face that found everything she observed to be amusing.

The Mayor exchanged pleasantries with the Minister as soon as he arrived and began the introductions for everyone else in the room, until he got to the young lady. Not having to have spoken English since his college days, he handed the American's introduction off to Tomoya.

"Minister, how is your English?" Tomoya asked the older man as he studied the tall red head.

"Pretty rusty… and I didn't bring an interpreter with me." he said sadly.

"Allow me to translate for you then." Tomoya switched to English and gave the Minister's title, then back to Japanese and announced, "Melissa Rothchilde representing Marsh University."

"Marsh University? Well, that is a fairly prestigious school isn't it? And what business does Marsh University have with me today?" The old man smiled, but the challenge was on his face too.

"Marsh University is Ichinose Kotomi's alma matter you know." the Mayor put in.

"I still don't see what this has to do with any discussions we will be having." the tone of his voice was letting them know that he was a busy man and this delay was not pleasing to him.

"Allow me Minister." Tomoya got the man's attention, "Marsh University is willing to fund the project and is promising complete control to Ichinose-hakase, as long as they are allowed to have some of their people also working on the project and the results are shared. They are even willing to pay for the entire project to be moved back to Texas if necessary. We thought you might be able to convince her of the benefits of having the project stay here… in Japan."

"It sounds to me like this should be decided with Ichinose-hakase, and I don't see her present." The minister tried to forestall the talks that he now saw as being far more complex than he had originally planned for. He had been briefed that Ichinose Kotomi was a reclusive person who had difficulties dealing with strangers and disliked confrontations. This task was supposed to be a walk in the park. And yet, the minister had the suspicious feeling that he was walking into an ambush.

"I represent Ichinose-hakase in all these matters." Tomoya said calmly.

"And you are..." the Minister had heard the name during the mayor's introductions, but he wanted to know why this young man was representing the absent genius. He seemed far too young to be involved at an important meeting like this. _The problem with the young is that they don't have the experience to understand other people's motivations. Without that, they don't know what's really going on. But, that just makes them easier to manipulate._

"Okazaki Tomoya. I am her lawyer." Tomoya bowed.

"I still don't see…" the Minister started to object.

"And her husband." Tomoya added.

"Oh… then I guess we do need to talk." the Minister seemed to concede the argument, but he thought he could still get what he was after if it was just the young lawyer husband to deal with. The problem, as he saw it, was that the young man was surrounded by the town's elders… and Kobayashi. While recalculating what he stood to win and lose, he looked around at the faces in the room. _Someone here is responsible for taking what should have been an easy task, and making it impossible_ _._ _Kobayashi-hakase… I've run_ _up against_ _him before. The delightful looking young woman is nothing but a distraction. So which one of these men schemed to shut me down? The Mayor is an idiot. Surely not the young husband! He is too brash and inexperienced to have set_ _up_ _something like this. So, either the Chief of Police or Kobayashi. My bet is Kobayashi. Very well old man. You may have won this round but I'm not out yet._

.

 **Tuesday morning, September 7 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

Four days after the meeting with the MEXT, several friends gathered in the Ichinose house to prepare for the oncoming storm. In this case, it wasn't a figurative storm. Severe Tropical Storm Malou would be passing through their little part of Japan and all of the weather related side effects were predicted. Flood waters, high winds, and mudslides would all be possible. Schools and businesses were closed as a precaution. Kotomi's house was fortunately on high ground without being on the side of a hill. So, the only thing that they were concerned about was the high winds.

#I am not worried too much. I have been through several storms in this house and it is very reliable.# Tomoyo said to the red headed American in English.

#Thank you for your kindness, but I am more concerned about damage to Kotomi's trucks. Many of the instruments on those trucks are rather sensitive, so if something happens to the garage they are housed in… it could be a major setback.# Melissa replied.

#I forgot that you are one of the few people that understands all this technical wizardry of Kotomi's.# Tomoya admitted.

#I am still learning. I would like to stay here and learn directly from her, but I am sure that the college will want me to come back soon.# Melissa said wistfully.

#I wish I could understand all of this like you.# Tomoyo smiled, but Melissa could see that the platinum blond thought it was a failing that she couldn't comprehend Kotomi's strange science.

#You are remarkable in your own endeavors. The Mayor thinks very highly of you, you know.# Melissa recalled some of the Mayor's praise at the dinner she had attended during the Minister's recent visit. #I am also very impressed with your English. It is far better than my Japanese.#

#You studied Japanese?# Tomoyo was surprised.

#I took three years of it in college… after I met Kotomi-chan.# Melissa explained, #She was so incredible. I was a grad student when she was a Freshman, but she had this huge project she was heading up. Everyone wanted to be part of it. I got a chance to work closely with her and I found out that she would lapse into Japanese when she was deep in thought or when she was under a lot of stress. So I signed up for Japanese classes to better understand her.#

#I am enjoying this opportunity to speak English with a native speaker but, if you would like, we can speak in Japanese.# Tomoyo offered.

"So you understood what was being said in the Mayor's office?" Tomoya asked the red-head.

"Yes… well, most of it. I get lost when people speak quickly." Melissa replied but was then distracted by the sound of footsteps. She looked up with the others to see Kotomi coming down the stairs in a maroon and gold yukata.

"Oh!" Melissa was instantly on her feet, "You look beautiful much in kimono, Kotomi-chan!" Melissa's eyes were wide and her hands wringing next to her face in excitement.

"Technically, that is a yukata." Yuki smiled slyly at the excited red-head and took her hand as she stood up, "Come on. You're the same height as me. I think I have a yukata that will fit you."

"But," Melissa looked embarrassed but explained anyway, "It fitting Melissa not. Melissa too thick."

"We'll see!" Yuki was aware that the American girl was almost thirty kilograms heavier, but yukata's are incredibly flexible when it comes to fitting different body sizes.

"We won't see them for a while." Kyou smirked as she sipped her coffee.

"Oh?" Tomoya handed his wife a cup of coffee when she sat down next to him.

"Last weekend she bought a bunch of extra-large yukatas at an End-Of-Summer sale." Kyou replied.

"But the end of summer is not for another two weeks?" Kotomi pointed out.

"True, but retail stores will have their End-Of-Summer sales before the kids go back to school so they can start setting up the Fall selections." Kyou explained. "It is a very busy time for them."

"Speaking of very busy times… Nagisa and your sister move back tomorrow, don't they?" Tomoya asked Kyou.

"Yes!" Kyou sounded like an excited little girl who knew she was about to get a nice present.

"Do you need any help moving her into the Furukawa place?" Tomoya offered.

"Oh no you don't, Okazaki Tomoya!" Kyou said with a huff.

"What?" Tomoya asked innocently.

"You just want to see my sister's panties!" Kyou teased. She expected to see him blush. She certainly didn't expect Kotomi's comment.

"Tomoya-kun has already seen Ryou-chan's panties." Kotomi said.

What?" both Tomoya and Kyou gaped.

"When I asked you what it was like to have a sister, you told me that you wear a lot of each other's clothes… even the panties." Kotomi explained, "Therefore, if Tomoya-kun has seen your panties, then he has seen Ryou-chan's panties. And, Tomoya-kun has seen your panties many times."

"Ah!" Kyou could feel the heat on her cheeks and knew that she was blushing all the way up to her ears. She was just barely able to get her eyes up to look at Tomoya and could see his face was in a blush too.

"Kotomi-chan." Tomoya concentrated hard to be able to talk through his embarrassment.

"Yes, Tomoya-kun?" Kotomi still didn't know why the two of them were blushing so hard, but she was sure that she hadn't said anything factually incorrect.

"It is um… embarrassing… when you say that." Tomoya tried to explain to his pure wife.

"How so?" Kotomi asked.

"Well… you see… how would you feel if we started discussing the panties you are wearing?" Tomoya tried to help his uncomprehending wife understand by using empathy.

"But Tomoya-kun, I am wearing a yukata. I am not currently wearing any underwear." Kotomi told him.

"Eeep!" Kyou's blush intensified as it was infused with guilt. Years ago she had jokingly told Kotomi that she wasn't supposed to wear anything under her yukata…

It was too much for Tomoya. He banged his head into the table in front of him to try and get some semblance of control back in his life.

.

 **Sunday morning, September 12 – Furukawa Residence**

* * *

"My little girls have come home! I'm the happiest father ever!" Akio wailed as he embraced the lavender and chestnut haired girls after coming in from the bakery entrance.

"Dad!" Nagisa complained, "We've been here for four days. You're the one that just got home!"

"That's true." Sanae sided with her daughter, "You're gone from here as much as she is. I get so lonely in this house by myself, if it wasn't for the occasional visits from Tomoya-kun…"

"Huh?" Akio let go of the two girls and glared at Tomoya across the room. "What occasional visits?"

"Well, I…" Tomoya was about to explain that he recently rushed over to fix a water leak under the sink in the hallway bath. But Sanae was in a mood to have a little fun.

"He came over a few nights ago to fix a… plumbing problem." Sanae sighed, "He's really good with his hands."

"Sanae… I'm good with my hands too, right? Sanae?" Akio followed his smiling wife into the kitchen.

"Your mother and father is much funny." Melissa giggled.

"I was hoping you wouldn't understand all of that. Sometimes they are so embarrassing." Nagisa moaned.

"Welcome home Auntie Nagisa!" Shuichi, and Shuji said exuberantly. Their little sister said it as well but more quietly. She hadn't seen Nagisa or Ryou for some time and was shy with them again.

"Oh, it's so good to see you too!" Nagisa knelt to hug all three of them but little Maiko-chan held back against her father's leg. It was so wonderful to hug them. She could feel their youthful energy radiating from their small bodies as the two boys hugged her back.

Maiko saw something then. A look of love and acceptance was how she would describe Nagisa's face if she knew the right words. But there was something else. Something like a faint sadness in Nagisa's face and eyes as she hugged the two vital young boys.

Maiko was too young to understand about Nagisa's frail body, or the life choice that meant that she would never have a child of her own. But she could tell sadness when she saw it and she suddenly felt very close to the chestnut haired woman. When her older brothers finished their hug and moved away from Nagisa, Maiko discovered that she wasn't scared any more. Furtively at first, she bravely stepped away from the safety of her father's leg and reached out to Nagisa.

Nagisa knew about little Maiko-chan's shyness, and she knew how amazing it was for the little girl to do so much. She opened her arms and gave Maiko the happiest smile when the little girl stepped into her embrace.

The boys were as stunned as their parents and watched agape while their sister hugged Nagisa-chan. But not for too long. Both of them remembered their duty and now looked up to the woman who looked so much like their Kyou-mama. Sure, she was a little shorter, had blue eyes, and had shorter hair, but still…

"Welcome home Auntie Ryou!" the two boys called out to their Kyou-mama's twin.

"Eh?" Ryou was snapped out of the same shocked stare that others were having while they watched Maiko-chan and Nagisa. Now she was looking at the two smiling boys that seemed happy to see her. They were looking at her with only the purest of intent, but she could only remember the things she had said so many years ago.

 _Kotomi-chan's boys. ...they are Kotomi-chan's boys. They're also Tomoya-kun's boys, but they're not yours. Onee-chan, you have to remember that. Onee-chan… they're not yours! Tomoya-kun is married to Kotomi-chan, not you. He is the one having sex with her, not you. She is the one having his children, not you. Those children belong to them, not to you!_

"It's good to see you boys too." Ryou knelt and hugged them but there was no real affection there. She still could not think of them as her sister's boys. Nor could she think of them as her nephews. A part of her wanted to explain it to them and disabuse the boys of the misunderstanding that Kyou was related to them in any way. But she also knew how much that would hurt her Onee-chan… and her own relationship with her sister would be shattered. Ryou looked up into the eyes of her sister to see… worry.

 _So, she thinks I might do it. She thinks that I'll bring down her little house of cards so easily. Oh Onee-chan, if your relationship is that fragile, then it isn't a real relationship in the first place. Can't you see that? Are you in such deep denial that you can't discern reality from this warped existence any more? Some day, it's going to all come crashing down. Some day, you will realize that you've been living a fool's existence. And then what? Will you be happy that I said nothing all this time then? Or will you be mad at your little sister for not doing something to force you to escape from this folly?_

Ryou had thought that her father would have done the damage necessary to pry her sister away from Tomoya and Kotomi, but he hadn't. Deep inside, Ryou knew that it would have to be her. And when she did what had to be done, it was likely they would never speak again. So far, Ryou had decided that it was too high a price to pay for her sister's salvation. So far…

 _But I'm back home now. Back where I can check up on you… watch over you. I won't let anyone ruin your life. I will…_

"Auntie Ryou?" little Michiko now stood in front of the still kneeling Ryou. She had the deep purple hair of her mother, but her eyes…

 _Her eyes are like looking into a mirror!_ Ryou had seen the little girl before, but it hit her now how much it felt like she was staring back into her own eyes. "Long ago, Onee-chan told me that looking into your eyes made her feel like she was looking at me."

"Huh? Onee-chan?" Maiko-chan was confused.

"Kyou… Your Kyou-mama is my older sister. So she is my Onee-chan." Ryou explained.

"Then… I guess I should love you too… since I love Kyou-mama so much! Right?" Maiko's logic was childlike and without many gray places. She was now looking to Ryou for approval.

"Why…" Ryou was tempted to explain the finer points of trust and love. Knowing that the child's trust was already violated since they had obviously never told her that Kyou was not really her mother, she refrained and asked a different question. "Why do you love Kyou-mama so much?"

"Because she loves me so much!" Maiko giggled as if the question was the silliest thing she had ever heard.

"Yeah, that's it isn't it?" Ryou felt the heaviness lifting from her heart. _Such simple words. Such honest love freely and openly expressed. Only a child could do such a thing. These kids really love Onee-chan because Onee-chan really loves them. I guess… that's not… such a bad thing._

.

 **Sunday afternoon, September 19 – Crossroads Bar**

* * *

Takeo and Hiroki opened the door for the two slimmer figures wearing hoodies down low over their faces. As soon as they were all inside, Yukine and Tomoyo threw back the hoodies and stripped them off. It was still technically summer time and the upstairs party room was much too warm to be wearing a sweater.

The rest of the boys were all there and had already stripped down to their undershirts in the room's stifling heat. They didn't look like they had been fighting, but they looked none too pleased.

"What's going on?" Tomoyo asked.

"Boss…" Isamu worked his jaw as if he were about to say something he really didn't want to say, "we have to talk."


	13. Chapter 13 - Long Distance Love

**Sunday afternoon, September 19 – Ichinose House**

* * *

A lot of renovation had been done to the Ichinose residence since the beginning of the year. Most of it was very functional and had a very distinct purpose. The new wing on the house allowed the Master Bedroom to be opened up quite a bit. It was already sufficient for two people, but with it's new dimensions, it was extravagant. Of course, Kotomi had asked for that expansion knowing that there would be three people living in that room instead of the usual two. She had arrived at that conclusion in her usual way: scientifically.

It had taken a bit of experimentation to find the correct arrangement but, as always, she had faced that challenge head on. Kotomi hadn't just accepted the results, she had embraced them. Just as she had always been comfortable when her mother and father were around, she found that she could only really feel comfortable when she was with both Tomoya and Kyou. She could endure with only one of the two of them near. Without either of them, she could struggle on if she had someone like Tomoyo or Yuki with her, but having no-one familiar with her was enough to make her feel physically ill. It didn't bother her so much when she had her work to dive into, but it was all those difficult times between sleep and work that had always been so troublesome. The times that she used to think of as wasted time. Time to get cleaned up or soak in a bath. Time cooking dinner for her family. Time helping her children with their homework. Time walking them to school. Even time sitting and watching them play, or sleep, or… do anything at all. They were treasured times now and she wanted to be comfortable during her treasured times. If a person cannot be comfortable where they live, then that place is not a home.

She had also studied her sleeping habits as thoroughly as she had analyzed her waking actions and feelings. Using cameras and sensors, she discovered that she achieved the best rest on Tomoya's left as he lay on his back. The recordings from the camera's clearly showed that she would reach past Tomoya to touch Kyou several times during the night. If Kyou was there, she would descend back into a deep and restful sleep. But on the occasions when she was not there, Kotomi would wake and seem disoriented before struggling to get back to sleep. Interestingly, Kyou did not require the same tactile feedback from Kotomi at first. But, over the last few years it seemed that she was now doing the same thing with Kotomi. There were even occasions when their hands would quest at the same time. Finding each other, they would intertwine even in sleep. To Kotomi, this evidence was incontrovertible in it's conclusion. In her opinion, Kyou-chan was indispensable for the continued happiness of the family. To that end, every effort was made to include Kyou in the redesign of the house, to make sure it was a home for everyone.

In her efforts to make her house into a home, Kotomi had decided to be practical and functional in just about everything… except her bath. Ever since their visit to the hot springs onsen in Hokkaido and the incident at the Furukawa's house when Nagisa and Tomoya were freezing to death… Kotomi had longed for a huge bath. When the architects understood what it was that she wanted, they changed the marking on the blueprints from _large bath_ to _small heated pool_. It was well built and had hand rails to help the bather in and out of the sunken pool in the bathroom floor. Overhead was a skylight to allow the natural rays of the sun into the room in the daytime and a view of the stars at night. But the truly impressive part of the bathing area was that this _bath_ could easily seat eight adults in comfortably hot water all the way up to their neck.

After all, if a person can't be comfortable in their own house, then it wasn't a home.

Kotomi, Kyou, and Yuki were relaxing in the splendid bath on this warm end-of-summer day while Tomoya was looking after the kids downstairs. Tomoya may not be next to Kotomi now, but she knew that he was near by. With Kyou and Yuki on either side of her, Kotomi felt absolutely luxurious.

"Wow… this bath is really big." Yuki said as she looked around at all the steaming water. As tall as she now was, it wasn't often that she could fit in a residential bath any more, She was truly enjoying the feeling of being able to sink into the water up to her neck, as well as also being able to stretch out and completely relax.

"Yeah. I thought it was a waste at first, but I have to admit… it has it's uses." Kyou said slowly and drowsily while her head lay back against the cool tile of the rim.

"AAAAH! You're all naked!" Fuko cried out. Yuki was startled at the short girl's cry, but Kyou and Kotomi had become used to the sudden appearances of their ikiryo friend.

"Fuko-chan, this is a bath." Kotomi said simply.

"So?" Fuko was in a quandary. At the same time she felt as if she should shield her eyes or run from the room, the hot water did seem very enticing.

"Isn't it you that is the strange one for being fully dressed in the bath?" Kyou said languidly. It would take a lot more than a surprise appearance from Fuko to disturb her tranquility. Her head was still laid back on the cool tile and her eyes still closed, but she knew that the ikiryo would be wearing the high school's winter uniform as she always did when she appeared.

"But..." Fuko understood the innuendo even if her demeanor was childlike. _An adult would know better than to enter the bath fully clothed._ "Kyou-chan is saying that Fuko is a child. Fuko is _not_ a child! Fuko is a very mature person. Fuko was just surprised to see you like that so suddenly."

"Come Fuko," Kotomi said as she rose up out of the water and used the steps to walk out of the bath to where Fuko stood, "I will help you wash the way I help Kyou-chan and I will shampoo your hair the way Tomoya-kun treats my hair. Then you can relax in the bath with us."

At 168 centimeters, Kotomi was considered above average height for a Japanese woman, but nowhere near the towering height of Yuki or Mai. Still, the purple haired genius was significantly taller than the diminutive 150 centimeters of little Fuko. But it wasn't the difference in height that Fuko found so disheartening… Fuko stared at the ponderously large chest of the purple haired girl as she got closer with each step. Although she desperately wanted to feel like an adult, after one look at Kotomi's ample and naked bosom and Fuko felt completely defeated.

"Ah… no… no thank you." Fuko said sadly. Part of her wanted to relax in the hot water with her friends but it would be so embarrassing when they were all so beautiful and she still had the body of… a child. Then Fuko remembered why she was here and brightly announced, "Fuko is here to give Kotomi-chan a message and ask a favor!"

"Okay. What is it?" Kotomi asked from where she stood only a meter away in her unabashed nudity.

"Um…" the tall naked girl being so close was a little disconcerting for Fuko but she was able to summon her courage and deliver the message, "Yukine-chan and Tomoyo-chan have been called away to a meeting and Youhei-kun would like to bring Yoichi and come visit, if that is okay with you?"

"Of course. Youhei-kun is a dear friend and how could I ever turn down a visit from sweet little Yoichi?" Kotomi smiled.

Kyou smiled too. There was a little girl downstairs who would soon be very happy. Although they were still only children, sweet little Yoichi had already become Michiko's favorite play partner.

"Can Fuko… can Fuko also ask for Yasuo and Maiko to come visit too?" Fuko pleaded for her little niece and nephew.

"Yes, please tell them that they are invited as well." Kotomi replied.

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan!" Fuko made a slight bow then started jumping up and down a moment later.

"What is it?" Kotomi asked the obviously excited girl. There was nothing about Fuko's actions that were frightening Kotomi, but her reactions did seem a bit odd.

"Onee-chan says she will bring them over in about an hour. And Youhei-kun says he will be here in thirty minutes."

"Oh?" Kotomi was curious, "When did you tell them?"

"Just now." Fuko answered.

"So, you are with Youhei-kun and also with Kouko-chan at the same time that you are here with us?" Kotomi cocked her head to consider how that could be.

"Um… yes, I guess so." Fuko replied as if she had only just now thought about being in three different places at the same time, as an odd thing.

"How are you doing that?" Kotomi asked as she stepped closer to Fuko and took the ikiryo girl by her hands.

"I… I don't know." Fuko felt her embarrassment rising at being even closer to the naked Kotomi now.

Kyou could hear the change in Fuko's voice and lazily rolled her head over to see the two standing over near the shower stools. Even from the bath, Kyou could see the rosy color building on Fuko's cheeks, from being so close to the naked Kotomi with her impressive bust.

"Fascinating." Kotomi said as she looked down at Fuko as if she were studying a new species, "Your hands feel warm and normal to the touch."

"You should give her a big hug to see if that feels normal too!" Kyou suggested with a sly grin.

"WHAAAA!" Fuko cried out as she was pulled into Kotomi's embrace. She saw the two large breasts getting closer and turned her head at the last second before they could suffocate her.

Kyou snorted in laughter when she saw the flabbergasted expression on the short girl's fiercely blushing face while her arms flapped about like a frightened bird. Kotomi had the little girl in a tight hug despite Fuko's extreme embarrassment. Then, in an instant, Fuko was gone.

"She evaporated!" Yuki cried out. She knew that Fuko was an ikiryo but had never been witness to the little girl's sudden appearance or departure. She wasn't frightened by it, but it was quite startling to see someone vanish like that.

"Do you think her body or mind became overtaxed, having to maintain three ikiryo presences at the same time?" Kotomi postulated aloud.

"Oh she was overtaxed alright, but for a completely different reason." Kyou was able to say through her laughter.

"Oh?" Kotomi asked innocently. Still naked, she turned and faced the two girls still in the bath.

"Kotomi-chan," Yuki didn't wait for the normal exchange before beginning her explanation, "Fuko's ikiryo body is still... immature. Do you know what I mean?"

"You are suggesting that she has not yet achieved development of her secondary sexual characteristics." Kotomi replied clinically.

"Um… right." Yuki agreed to avoid having to explain herself any further. She had been trying to convey to the buxom genius how intimidating her chest could be to a girl with a slight build. Yuki had never seen the body of the real Fuko that was still in a coma in the regional hospital, but she assumed that the two looked the same. Then again, it was possible that the ikiryo was frozen in form from the time when the accident happened, while the body continued to mature physically, if not mentally. She was about to ask about that when Kyou stood up from the pool of hot water and started to get out.

"Well, if we're going to have visitors soon, I guess we can't be lazing around in the bath any more." Kyou sounded disappointed as she began toweling off. But her dissatisfaction was only a feint. They were all her good friends that were coming to visit. And, her friends were bringing with them, their wonderful kids.

"Do you get tired of seeing them?" Yuki didn't catch-on that the sound of disappointment in Kyou's voice was a joke.

"Huh?" Kyou looked back at Yuki climbing out of the bath as she was slipping into her own yukata.

"The kids." Yuki explained, "I mean… you see them every day for school and then to have to see them come over on the weekends… I was just wondering if it is too much?"

"No!" It hadn't occurred to Kyou that her little joke might not have been interpreted correctly and she tried to quickly squash the misunderstanding, "I was just kidding! Actually, I can't wait until next school year when I get to have Michiko, Yasuo, and Yoichi in the class with me as well!"

"You should enjoy it while you can." Kotomi warned Kyou, "I doubt you will be able to remain their teacher after the end of the next school year."

"Huh?" Kyou spun on Kotomi. She hadn't heard Kotomi say anything about this before and was rather stunned at this sudden prediction. "Have you taken up fortune telling, Kotomi-chan?"

"No, not fortune telling. It's more like crowd sampling and predictive logic." Kotomi replied, "The parents of the fifth grader have signed consent forms to allow his grades to be made public, right?"

"Yes." Kyou answered but did not yet see how this meant that she could only be a teacher for one more year.

"His improvement so far has been extraordinary compared to the results of sending him to a cram school or hiring a tutor. If he continues at even half the pace that he is currently displaying, his achievements will draw considerable attention." Kotomi continued to explain while Kyou helped her into her yukata.

"But that's all good, right?" Kyou asked, "Why would his good performance be a reason for them to stop me from teaching?"

"I did not mean to suggest that anyone will try to stop you from teaching. Rather, it is very likely that there will be such demand for more students to be enrolled in your classes that you will be unable to continue with a single class." Kotomi told her friend, "You should consider moving up the timetables on expanding your program."

"Eh?" Kyou gaped. She was in the class every day and knew how well the kids had been doing. What she hadn't seen… or heard, were the comments about the class and the incredible results it was having on the kids.

Kotomi had attended several Parent – Teacher meetings. Kyou had been there too, but rather than having to concentrate on answering questions like Kyou-chan, Kotomi was able to focus on listening to the nature of the questions that were being asked. She had also paid attention to who had been asking them. Since coming back from the summer break, there had been a huge change. More questions were being asked by parents of children that were _not_ in the program. Those parents were interested, intrigued, and inevitably wanted to know why their child had not been selected for the program.

"In my original estimate of the success of your program, I might have been a bit conservative in my calculations. We should schedule a time to speak with the Principal about expanding the program." Kotomi seemed to be thinking about considerations and options even as she walked along with Kyou and Yuki.

"You mean… about getting another classroom for the next school year?" Kyou asked.

"No," Kotomi stopped to tell Kyou, "with the revised predictions, I believe that you will need the entirety of the school in three to five years."

Kyou was unable to say anything and could only gape at Kotomi.

"Three is more likely than five." Kotomi added.

The addendum did nothing to help Kyou with her speechlessness.

.

 **Sunday afternoon, September 19 – Crossroads Bar (continued)**

* * *

"Boss…" Isamu worked his jaw as if he were about to say something he really didn't want to say, "we have to talk."

"I see." Tomoyo was afraid of this. It had been weighing heavily on Tomoyo's mind since the first mission so it was inevitable that The Boys would be thinking along the same lines. _The risks are just too great. The issue with the time elasticity or mismatch or whatever-it-was that Kotomi decided_ _t_ _o_ _call it_ _… could have made things far, far worse. If the techs hadn't happened to be running those test signals, and if the analysts hadn't happened to be at the test site that day, and if they hadn't happened to recognize the test pattern irregularity for what it was… we could have lost all four team members on their very first mission. It is understandable if they want out. I only regret that Kotomi's hopes were so high for this next mission…_

"Do you know if Kotomi-chan has a way of going back to the same world?" Isamu asked Tomoyo.

"Huh?" Tomoyo looked around and all of the guys had the same intense and expectant look.

"Like the one we just came from. Could we go back to the same world we just left?" Isamu asked after looking around the room and getting several nods from the other guys.

"What's going on here?" Tomoyo no longer felt like she understood the atmosphere at all, and the feeling made her uneasy. A quick glance at the only other girl in the room told her that Yukine didn't know anything about this either.

"Well, ya see..." Isamu was about to explain but was interrupted.

"It's all my fault, Boss." Hiroki said with his head hung apologetically. "I don't want none of the others to be blamed for this."

"Fault? Blamed for what?" Tomoyo wasn't angry but the growing confusion was becoming quite aggravating to her.

"It's Nagisa-chan." Isamu continued the explanation when he could see that Hiroki was too embarrassed to go on. "Ever since we went to that world, Hiroki can't stop thinking about her."

"She's so alone in that world. And she is such a nice person. She was nice to all of us. Even to a guy like me." Hiroki could feel his heart breaking just thinking about it. His chest felt tight and he could hear the blood pounding in his ears when he thought about the sweet girl in the bakery with her parents, but without any friends.

"So… you want to go visit her again?" Yukine asked the man with the gorilla-like face and the tender heart.

"I want… I want to go confess to her." Hiroki declared.

"WHAT?" Tomoyo and Yukine were both shocked at the big guys admission.

.

 **Monday early-evening, September 20 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

"Thank you for coming over on such short notice." Tomoya welcomed the Furukawa's and Ryou into the house.

"From the excitement in Onee-chan's voice, it sounded almost like an emergency." Ryou said as she entered the living room holding Nagisa's hand.

"In a way, you might say that it is." Tomoyo's comment of agreement came from the room ahead.

"Oh, you have other guests?" Sanae commented as she saw Melissa, Youhei, Yukine, Tomoyo, Isamu, and Hiroki already in the living room. She could also smell the aroma of something delicious cooking and could hear the faint sounds of someone moving around in the kitchen.

"They are part of this too." Kotomi smiled and waved for everyone to also come into the living room and take seats. To Ryou, the girl genius looked far more excited than her usual self.

"What's going on?" Akio didn't mind visiting friends but it looked like there was some kind of agenda that he didn't know about.

"Tomoyo-chan, could you sum it up for everyone? I'm too excited by all of this to do a good job of it." Kotomi gushed.

"Very well." Tomoyo stood and addressed everyone gathered in the room. She realized that some of the people here already knew all of the story but there were others that didn't, and a few that may know nothing of this yet. "Back in August, Kotomi had her first successful contact to another parallel universe when Isamu, Hiroki, Kenta, and Takeo visited that world. Their only mission was to check up on a few familiar people to find out how exactly parallel that world is to our own."

"Wow!" Akio was surprised. He had heard that there had been a success with Kotomi's experiments but hadn't heard any of that news yet.

"How close was it?" Sanae asked.

"Well, the first difference they noticed was time. That universe was about four years behind us." Tomoyo continued, "There were other differences as well. Nagisa never went back to High School after getting sick in her senior year. Because of that decision, she didn't know any of the rest of us. She lives with her parents and helps with the bakery. Ryou was off at college where she is studying to be a nurse. Tomoya and I live in Hokkaido where I am going to college while he is working. No contact was made with either of them though. Kyou works in a sporting goods store and has no friends."

"Hey!" Kyou objected.

"What about Kotomi-chan?" Ryou asked.

"The Kotomi-chan in that universe perished years ago, in the airplane accident that took her mother and father." Kotomi reported, "Apparently, in that universe her parents decided to take her with them on that trip."

"Oh… I'm sorry." Ryou suddenly felt awkward. There had been many times that she had wished Kotomi wasn't around so that Kyou could have a more normal life, but never anything so drastic as wishing the genius girl was dead.

"No." Kotomi reassured Ryou, "The Parallel Universes are separate and distinct. They do not affect one another. Certainly there is sadness in that universe for many things that went wrong – according to our standards here. But in this universe, I am alive and very happy."

"Well, they don't normally affect each other." Tomoya reminded his wife why they were all here.

"Oh... right." Kotomi corrected herself. Then she turned back to Tomoyo for the powder blond to continue her briefing.

"In the last moments of their mission, they were discovered in the park by Nagisa and Kyou. Certain facts about this universe were revealed to the other-Nagisa and the other-Kyou about how things turned out in this universe in an effort to keep the other-Kyou from calling the police. In the end, we believe that their stories were believed and that it may have even started a friendship between the other-Nagisa and the other-Kyou."

"Is there anything they can do with that knowledge? I mean… is there any way they could come to this universe and cause problems here?" Youhei asked.

"Without a Kotomi to help them, it seems very unlikely." Tomoya suggested.

"Then, what's the problem?" Youhei was ready to let this drop since it had the possibility of turning into something very sciency and boring… at least for him.

"I'm the problem." Hiroki spoke up, if briefly.

"He fell in love with the other-Nagisa." Isamu added when it looked like Hiroki wasn't going to say any more.

"WHAT?" Akio, Nagisa and Ryou all gaped. Sanae only giggled.

"To be fair, it did not seem like the feelings were one sided." Tomoyo defended Hiroki. "After reviewing their recordings, it looks to me like the other-Nagisa also has feelings for Hiroki as well. She saw him as an honest worker and referred to him as a _big teddy bear_."

"Oh my!" Sanae giggled some more.

"Sanae-san, you seem to be taking this a lot better than your husband or daughter… or Ryou-chan." Tomoya then asked, "Would you mind telling us what you are thinking?"

"I suppose it's okay. It's a little embarrassing but if it will help the situation, I am okay with it." Sanae waited to get a nod from Nagisa then continued, "I think the reason why I'm reacting differently is because I'm sympathizing with the other-me. I'm imagining what her reactions would have been to all of this. You see, Nagisa has always been somewhat frail and very shy. She barely made any friends in all of her school years. She told us that she did not have the courage to go through the third year of high school again and was about to give up when Tomoya-kun came along and encouraged her. If he hadn't done that, she never would have met Ryou or any of the rest of you. Akio and I would have done our best to help her in life, but it is likely that she would not have made any friends and would have simply become the new Bakery Shop girl who would eventually take over the business. So, if Nagisa took an interest in someone… anyone… I believe the other-me would have encouraged it."

"Anyone?" Tomoyo now worried, "The Hiroki in this universe changed because of the relationship between Yukine and Youhei… mostly. It is entirely possible that the other-Hiroki is a thug and possibly a murderer. Would the other-Sanae have been okay with that?"

"I don't think the other-Nagisa would have been okay with that!" Nagisa said before her mother could answer the question that had been asked of her, "I could see myself liking an honest worker. But a dishonest thug would have scared me too much!"

"Really, Nagisa-chan?" Hiroki seemed hopeful for the first time since they had come back from that mission. "Do you really think you could like a guy like me?"

Ryou gasped and squeezed Nagisa's hand tightly when she heard the big guy's near-confession.

"Well, I am happy with the relationship I am in now… in this universe." Nagisa wanted to make that point clear when she felt her girlfriend's grip on her hand. But she assured Hiroki, "I think the Nagisa in that universe already likes you though. It means a lot if she called you a teddy bear."

"Well, that answers that question." Tomoyo seemed to be pleased and saddened at the same time with Nagisa's verdict.

"Why… what's going on?" Sanae asked.

"Well, if Nagisa-chan had said that there was no way she would ever like Hiroki-san, then that would have ended any further efforts." Tomoya explained, "You see… Hiroki-san has asked if there is a way to go back to the same parallel universe, and visit the same other-Nagisa so that he can… confess to her."

"Are… are you serious?" Youhei asked, "I mean… wouldn't that be a problem even if she said yes? What could you do about it? Can you bring her back here… back to this universe?"

"Absolutely not!" Akio said firmly, "The other-Akio and the other-Sanae… to have their daughter ripped away from them… never to see her again… it would be devastating for them."

"That's right." Tomoyo responded as if she were haunted by her own words, "So the alternative is that he goes to live with her in her universe. Never to be seen again in this world."

"But that's okay, isn't it?" Hiroki asked, "Wasn't I picked for this mission because no-one would miss me?"

"NO DAMMIT!" Tomoyo was on her feet in an instant. Her fists were clenched and her jaw tight from anger as she faced Hiroki… but there was no hate in her eyes. "How many times do I… how many times does Kotomi have to explain this? You were picked… ALL of the members of the exploration team were picked because no-one relies on you for their life. No invalids or children. It was NOT because you wouldn't be missed!" The anger in her face softened then, and a wetness could be seen around the now saddened eyes, "If something were to happen to you… you would be missed. I would miss you."

The room was quiet for a moment and all eyes were either diverted or looking at Tomoyo… until Kotomi's soft voice spoke up.

"I know that a lot of you think that I don't have many emotions or that I'm aloof most of the time." Kotomi added when Tomoyo finished talking, "Even as a child I was never very good at showing my emotions in front of people. I admit that it's a failing of mine. But I'm not as aloof as you think. Rather, I'm a coward. I am afraid to show my emotions because I'm worried that I might do it inappropriately – and there is my fear of talking to people that I don't know well." Kotomi took a deep breath and summoned her courage to say what she hoped would be appropriate in this situation, "Hiroki-kun, I remember watching you work on the roof of the annex in the hot sun this last summer. I noticed how much more confident you were when you had your new hammer. I could tell that you were determined to do a good job when I watched you tear down the whole section around the skylight and redo it several times, before you were satisfied with your work. I was so worried when you were working on the parts of the roof around the edges. I didn't want to look because I was so scared that you would fall, but I had to watch so that I could call an ambulance if something did happen. Many times I wanted to meet you… I wanted to meet all of you that worked so hard on my house. I wanted to bring food out to you like Tomoyo-chan did and I wanted to get to know all of you better. But, as I said, I am a coward. So, Isamu-kun and Hiroki-kun, I ask that you forgive me for my cowardice but please do not assume that you will not be missed if something were to happen to you… or if you were to never come back."

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan!" Isamu said through his shock. Kotomi seemed on the verge of tears to him. Her impassioned plea touched his soul and, from the look on his friend's face, it got through to Hiroki as well.

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan." Hiroki said more somberly. It meant a lot to him that Kotomi-chan and Sakagami-sama would care so much for him, but it also muddied his feelings about what he had asked for. It was simpler to think about running off to another universe when he didn't think it would bother anyone that he left behind.

"It's still not so simple." Youhei cautioned everyone's thinking. "I know Kotomi-chan is probably trying to work out if it can be done from a technical perspective. But what about the legal aspect?"

"Legal?" Tomoya asked his old friend.

"Sure. Once he's there, he will have the same identity as the Hiroki that is in the other universe. Unfortunately, there are only bad outcomes from this."

"What do you mean?" Tomoya asked. He had already been thinking about ways to give Hiroki a new identity.

"The worst case is that the other-Hiroki is wanted for murder. What if someone who has seen a bulletin or a wanted poster, sees our Hiroki walking down the street, hand-in-hand with the other-Nagisa? They call the police. The police will rely on fingerprints, DNA, and eye-witnesses. If they get a match on any one of those things, our Hiroki may spend the rest of his life in prison for something he didn't do."

"But surely..." Tomoya was cut off when Youhei put up his hand to let him know that he wasn't finished.

"Let's say the other-Hiroki is dead. Our Hiroki will have to deal with mistaken identity, old debts or vendettas, or crimes that the other-Hiroki was guilty of. Even if the other-Hiroki hasn't yet done anything wrong, our Hiroki would probably be accused of identity theft at the least."

"All right, I see what you're thinking." Tomoya realized he should have run some of his idea's past Youhei but he still thought there might be a way to do this, "After the team gets back from tomorrow's mission, I'll get together with Youhei and Hiroki and we'll see if we can come up with a way to make this work. Just in case Kotomi finds a way to send you back to the exact same universe."

"You won't have to wait for us to get back." Isamu stated, "Tomorrow's team will be Iwao, Mikio, and Takeshi."

"A three man team?" Kotomi wondered.

"No, I am the Team Leader so I am the fourth man." Isamu stated.

"But… you went on the last mission." Tomoyo tried to keep her voice calm. Her heart pounded in her chest at the thought of him going out on another dangerous mission again. Her fists clenched in the effort to keep her emotions under control. She wanted to remain fair and impartial to the team members that she was responsible for, but she wanted to find a reason for Isamu to be saved from this second mission more than anything now.

"Yeah, I know." Isamu was laughing off the dangerous aspect of his job as he replied, "But, until we've done enough missions for The Boss and me to pick another Team Leader, I'm it. And… I thought about it and I think it's a good idea for someone who has done it once before, to be on the mission anyway."

"That… makes sense." Tomoyo had to agree with Isamu's logic… even if it was not the conclusion she wanted to arrive at. She knew she could stomp her foot down and demand that Isamu not go on the coming mission, but that would be unfair and she knew it. _But I don't want him to go! Not him!_ _Waitaminit…_ _Why… why do I not want him to go? Why do I think about Isamu more than the others? What is it about Isamu that affects me like this?_

"Boss?" Isamu asked when he noticed that Tomoyo was staring at him.

"Nothing… it's nothing." Tomoyo said quickly when she realized she had been staring at his face while she was thinking about him. Tomoyo looked down and let her long hair fall around her face to hide the blush she was feeling on her cheeks.

"This is all very interesting, but irrelevant if Kotomi can't get Hiroki back to the exact same universe, right?" Kyou asked, "What about it Kotomi-chan? Is it something you can do?"

"Not yet. But I did start looking into it after hearing Hiroki's request. Allow me to show you something I have been studying." Kotomi raised a remote control for the big flat screen in the room and everyone was soon looking at two images on the screen. They looked like 3D graphs but fuzzier and more fluid. "These are waveforms that we have captured so far. The one on the left was captured from the world that was visited last time and the one on the right is from the place we intend to go tomorrow."

"They look the same to me." Tomoya admitted. He wasn't the only one though. Several people in the room nodded agreement to his comment.

"They very nearly are. However, we have been able to discern very slight changes in each one of them. If it turns out that they are a kind of fingerprint to the different universes, we might be able to use them as a method to accurately select which world we want to visit." Kotomi sounded hopeful.

"How many of them have you found?" Tomoyo asked.

"So far, we have found a little over two hundred." Kotomi said excitedly.

"Wow! Two hundred possible parallel universes… that's amazing!" Yukine quickly did the math in her head and figured out if they were to visit a different universe every month, it would take them around eighteen years to get through all of them. But Melissa's laughter was a clue that her assumption may not be right…

"Two hundred and sixteen is the current subset. The potential pool is 10.314 times ten to the twenty-seventh power. Or, more than a billion times more possibilities than there are grains of sand in the whole world." Melissa added with her clipped but greatly improved Japanese.

"There are _that_ many parallel universes?" Ryou gaped.

"Oh no." Kotomi answered Ryou, "There are far more than that. The number Melissa is referring to is the _Ushio subset_. Until such time that I can discover how to make our own initial connections, we are reliant on the links made by the Ushio entities. Since her goal was to find a parallel dimension where a healthy Tomoya-kun and Nagisa-chan lived, those will be the only worlds we can access. So, the _Ushio subset_ is the theorized number of parallel universes that contain both a Tomoya-kun and a Nagisa-chan."

"So… going back to the same world is impossible." Hiroki sounded defeated.

"It is now, but with every mission, we gain more understanding of the waveforms." Kotomi sounded encouraging, "If you don't mind the wait, I believe that we may be able to do this in six months to a year… if we can stay on schedule."

"Really?" Hiroki sounded hopeful again.

"Yup!" Kotomi mimicked her daughter's cheerful way of saying yes.

"All right then," Tomoyo stood up and announced, "We're going to need to be in the park tomorrow morning at 3AM, so I need to get Isamu fed and put to bed."

"Well, Koumura-san has prepared dinner for everyone so I hope you'll join us." Kotomi invited them.

"And since you're both consenting adults, what you choose to do with Isamu-san afterwards is entirely up to you." Youhei added.

"What?" Tomoyo was confused for a moment before she replayed her last comment in her head and realized what Youhei was talking about. She turned as if she was going to replay another memory of kicking Youhei through the nearest window.

Yukine protectively stepped in front of her husband but it was Isamu's words that stopped Tomoyo in her tracks.

"Sunohara-san, please don't joke like that." Isamu said calmly, "No matter how much I like The Boss, there's no way she would ever consider someone like me."

 _Isamu… likes me?_ Tomoyo was frozen with the realization that those words were something that she was desperately wanting to hear. _Was that… a confession? What should I do? What should I do? WHAT SHOULD I DO?_

The room became eerily quiet. Youhei and Yukine were looking at Tomoyo and could see the blood drain from her face as the echoes of Isamu's words sank in. Isamu could feel the tension and knew that he had said too much.

"I… uh… I ate before I came over so, if you nice people will excuse me… I'll be leaving now." Isamu apologized.

"I'll see you to the door." Tomoya said while Kyou ran off into the kitchen.

"I already ate too. I'll go with Isamu." Hiroki grunted as he too got up.

The three of them moved toward the door, but no-one else stirred or said a word. Yukine was looking into Tomoyo's eyes and wanted to signal her to also go to the door, but she could see that her platinum blond friend was petrified.

Just as the three men got to the foyer, they heard Kotomi call out to them.

"Just a minute!" Kotomi came running up and addressed the scariest looking of the three, "Hiroki-kun, I just wanted to tell you that I will be working diligently on this problem. The more I think on it, the more I believe that this is something that _can_ be done. If you are willing to wait for me to find a solution, I would ask that you not give up hope."

"I won't give up hope." the big brutish looking fellow smiled, "If Kotomi-chan says she can do it, I believe her. The way I sees it, Kotomi-chan can do anything."

"Why Hiroki-kun, you silver tongued devil." Tomoya smiled, "If I didn't already know you had a thing for Nagisa-chan, I'd think you were after my wife."

"Huh?" Hiroki's jaw dropped at Tomoya's insinuation. Flustered, he was about to deny anything of the sort but Kyou showed up at the door.

"All right you two, I know you didn't eat anything before you came over here." Kyou handed both Isamu and Hiroki a heavy bag. "And, if you don't mind, I'd like to offer both of you some romance advice."

"Uh yeah." Hiroki said as he took the bag.

"Please." Isamu said through his blush.

"Stand firm. Do your best." Kyou said as she looked into both of their eyes.

"Um..." Isamu was about to ask what the advice she had for him was. He was expecting her to tell him to forget about trying for something so unreachable. But Kyou was staring into his eyes and he understood that the same advice was for both of them. "Than you, Kyou-chan."

.

Isamu and Hiroki walked down several streets in silence. It wasn't words but the sound of Isamu's stomach growling that finally broke the quiet calm.

"Let's eat at the park." Isamu suggested. They were almost there anyways and there was still quite a bit of light in the sky.

"Yeah." Hiroki agreed.

"Hey, you say anything to the other guys about… what I said tonight and I'll break your jaw." Isamu growled.

"Who do you think I am, Kenta?" Hiroki challenged.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry for that." Isamu now felt bad for insinuating that Hiroki was a gossip.

"Isokay… besides, they already know anyway." Hiroki mumbled.

"They already know… they already know what?" Isamu demanded.

"How you feel about The Boss." Hiroki shrugged.

"What… how?" Isamu stammered. He had thought he had hidden his feelings well.

"C'mon, we've all known you for a long, long time. We can tell." Hiroki said softly.

"Please tell me that Kenta doesn't know." Isamu asked.

"Heh, he was probably the first to figure it out." Hiroki chuckled.


	14. Chapter 14 - We're Here To Help

**Tuesday early morning, September 21 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

It was another early morning at the park. This time there was a difference though. Word had got around that the hometown genius had done something spectacular and there were a few dozen spectators in the park even at this ridiculous hour. But that wasn't the only difference.

Several cars with credentials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) were there this time. They carried a number of people that identified themselves as "experts in the field" and "safety inspectors" that said they were here to _here to help_ and to _observe_.

Fortunately, Kobayashi-hakase and Tomoya had anticipated this. They had arrived with their credentials that identified them as officials from the government and expected to be granted access to anything they asked for. Most of them were quite surprised when they were instead, escorted to a temporary pergola that seemed to have been set up for them. This pergola had been set up near the entrance to the park. From there, one of the project trucks was visible about a half a block away, but there were trees and playground equipment between the temporary shelter and the target area at center field.

"Good morning everyone. If you are here to be an observer, please see the young lady at the back of the pergola. If you are here to help or if you believe yourself to be an _expert in the field_ , please take a seat and we'll get this over with as quickly as possible." Melissa said slowly in her best Japanese while she smiled cheerfully to the group of alleged _experts_ , _helpers,_ and _inspectors_. She noticed that some of them were sitting down as requested while others were looking around disdainfully. Only a few followed her instructions to go to the back and be designated as _observers_.

"You'll be getting _what_ over with as quickly as possible?" one of the sneering men asked in a bored monotone. Unlike most of the other government workers, he wore finer clothes that appeared to fit as if they had been tailored. He was the kind of person that bore himself like an aristocrat and expected to be treated like one.

"The testing and vetting process, of course." Melissa gave the generic official a smile that only barely hid her contempt for that kind of person. That same smile also hid her laughter at what she knew was about to happen. She claimed not to have a sadistic streak, but putting self-important people in their place was something that she truly enjoyed.

"I assure you, I have the highest authorization." the aristocratic official wearily proclaimed as he snapped open his hand-sewn leather ID case. Following his example, other officials began reaching for their credentials as well.

"Yes, well I'm sure that is all very interesting, but this is not a government operation so those credentials are worthless here." Melissa said through her continuous smile.

 _Worthless? Did that foreign bitch dare say that my credentials are worthless?_ There was a dead silence as the aristocrat's face twisted from boredom to anger. Peers, coworkers, and underlings took a step back. The rage and spite that this man was capable of was legendary. Many of them feared for the woman's safety, but none of them would intervene. To get in the way of this administrator when he was enraged, was a career ender.

"WHAT!" he made sure that his angry shriek could be heard across the park. The haughty administrator's face was now livid with rage as he bellowed, "You bitch! How dare you..." He took a step toward Melissa and suddenly stopped. The ugliest man, and the scariest man he had ever seen had just stepped into the light to stand on either side of the infuriating foreigner.

From the darkness beyond the pergola, Hiroki and Takeo saw their cue. It was just as Tomoya-san had said it would be, _Watch carefully. Melissa will be talking to them and at some point, one or more of them will act enraged and may move toward her. When that happens, that will be your signal to act. Remember,_ _Melissa is Kotomi's good friend._ _I am putting_ _her_ _safety in your hands because I believe you can do this better than anyone else._ Neither Hiroki or Takeo cared that much for Tomoya. It wasn't that they hated him, they just didn't care. But Kotomi was their employer and, more importantly, she was the good friend of Yukine-sama and The Boss. For those three, they would gladly break all the heads in the room.

The administrator stopped when he saw two very tough looking men step out of the shadows and stand to the left and right of this unpleasant foreign woman. He was prepared to destroy her for her discourtesy and impudence… but challenging a couple of thugs was another matter altogether.

"What's going on here? Who are these men? I'll not stand for these intimidation tactics! I'm calling the police." the administrator whipped out his phone while maintaining his glare at the foreign woman who dared to challenge him.

"I am the police." Youhei and one of his uniformed officers stepped into the light under the Pergola now. "Detective Sunohara of the Prefecture Police."

"I demand..." the piqued administrator started yelling, but Youhei cut him off with some words of warning.

"Before you say anything, it is my duty to inform you that everything you have said and done from the moment you got out of your car, has been recorded. I, along with this uniformed officer, have personally witnessed everything that has transpired since you entered the pergola." Youhei then cleared his throat and asked, "At this time I need to know if you wish to press charges?"

"I most certainly do!" the administrator growled.

"I wasn't speaking to you." Youhei said levelly, "Shouting in anger while using derogatory profanity, and charging. This constitutes assault in Japan." Youhei feigned embarrassment and said, "To think that a representative of our government would shame our good country by acting so uncivil to a visiting dignitary… it is unforgivable."

"I'm okay." Melissa continued her cheerful smile as she explained, "I am only here to administer the test to anyone that wants to do more than observe. All observers will be required to stay in the safety zones as designated by our local government and police."

"Who… who are _you_ to be testing _us_?" the administrator tried once more to salvage his tattered dignity.

"Oh, this is not my test. This test was created by Professors Okazaki and Kobayashi." Melissa explained, "They created this test for graduate students hoping to be interns on this project. It is designed to determine if the applicant has the basic and fundamental knowledge to join the team in any capacity at all. I'm sure that anyone the MEXT chose to send along as an _Expert_ will have no problems with this little test. I passed the test with flying colors, after all. Oh, and to answer your question… you can call me Professor M. I am a professor of physics from Marsh University."

"Give me that!" the administrator snatched the test sheet from Melissa and quickly ran through the questions. There were only eleven blanks on the sheet, and he had to admit to himself that the only one he could fill in was next to where it asked for his name. The rest of the exam was undecipherable gibberish as far as he could tell. Still glaring, he turned around and threw the test sheet at a man that was supposed to be good at math and physics. After all, he was on the council for selecting the official government-sanctioned textbooks for those courses – so he should know something about it.

"Does this make any sense to you?" he sneered at his peer.

"Oh… wow." the man swallowed as he carefully read through the questions on the page. "This is all some pretty cutting edge stuff." To avoid admitting outright that he couldn't answer even one question on the page… at least not without doing some considerable research, he asked, "I am familiar with Kobayashi-hakase, but who is this Okazaki-hakase you spoke of?"

"Oh, I guess you are more familiar with her unmarried name. Ichinose Kotomi is married to Okazaki Tomoya so I know her as Okazaki-hakase." Melissa informed them.

"Ah, well then… I don't believe there is a single person here that can answer more than a single question on this test." the man admitted.

"IDIOTS!" the administrator screamed hysterically, "Why am I surrounded by incompetent idiots!" Forgetting everything but his indignation, he then turned on Melissa. His arm swung to slap the impudent fool as he yelled, "And you…"

Part of his conscious mind remembered that Melissa wasn't alone. That memory was jogged when a fist the size of a small anvil, slammed into the side of his head. His legs buckled and there was a horrible ringing sound in his ears as he now knelt before Melissa and the two toughs. To his credit, the blow did not knock him out. Dazed and confused, he couldn't even recall which of the two toughs had hit him but the scary one looked positively murderous now. Looking over at the two cops, he could see the one in the uniform pulling out his handcuffs. Unfortunately, it wasn't the two toughs that the cop was looking at.

"I… I…" the administrator looked around and realized that he had just done something exceedingly stupid. The damned foreign woman had never changed her countenance, even when he took a swing at her. The two toughs looked like they would get immense enjoyment from beating him senseless. The Detective and Officer looked down on him with contempt. Without turning too much, he could see several of his colleagues and even underlings were unwilling to make eye contact. Some had turned away. _No! This… this can't be happening!_ He had been selected by the Minister himself to head up this group of _experts_ and _inspectors_ … and he had just utterly failed.

"Are we in trouble?" Hiroki asked Youhei.

"No. The job you were given was to be the lady's bodyguard, right?" Youhei asked.

"Yup." Hiroki agreed.

"Then you were just doing your job." Youhei commended Yukine's boys. He was glad that they had been able to keep that idiot away from Kotomi's friend. He was doubly glad that Takeo had pulled his punch to such a degree. _There would have been a lot more paperwork if that jackass had died._

.

"Well… at least the screaming stopped." Tomoya commented from the pergola where he waited with Kotomi and Tomoyo. Kyou wasn't at the park this morning since she would be having a very busy day at her school. Soon after the comment, he got a text message from Youhei.

 **Youhei:** You were right about almost everything. It's over now. They have all decided to become observers. Do we have enough of those funny glasses to go around?

 **Tomoya:** Almost? What was I wrong about? And yeah… the glasses she has ready for the crowd don't have the resolution of the goggles, but I think they'll be impressed.

 **Youhei:** One of them was stupid enough to try and hit Melissa. She's okay. Yukine's boys took care of it.

 **Tomoya:** Is he still alive?

 **Youhei:** Yeah. Takeo pulled his punch. I've got the jerk in custody now. He'll be spending a few nights at the local jail until someone from the Ministry comes to take him away.

 **Tomoya:** If you don't mind, let's not let Kotomi find out about this until after today's mission is all over.

 **Youhei:** No problem. I'm going to check on the uniform cops for a bit. Call me when the countdown is starting. I wanna see this light-show you've been talking about.

 **Tomoya:** You got it. And, thanks.

When Tomoya looked up from his phone, he saw Tomoyo staring at him. Kotomi was busy going over some things on her laptop and probably wouldn't notice a conversation but he didn't want to take any chances. He opened the screen on his phone to display the conversation he just had with Youhei and passed his phone over to the platinum blond.

Tomoyo had not been pleased with the idea of using any of her men for this bodyguard duty. She was trying to get them away from things that would lead to fighting, but there just wasn't enough time to arrange anyone else. At least, not anyone that could walk freely in the inner circle around Kotomi without spooking her. On the other hand, seeing Youhei's report that Takeo had thought enough to pull his punch, had to make Tomoyo feel better about it. While Tomoyo read through the conversation, Tomoya looked around at the other people in the pergola with him.

At the next table over were a couple of Kotomi's senior techs and the exploration team, which this time included Isamu, Iwao, Mikio, and Takeshi. The techs didn't seem as stand-offish as they had been before the first mission. Kotomi wouldn't have to tell the boys about the new features in their equipment this time. It looked like the techs were more than eager to reveal the new improvements and explain the last minute additions to the special devices in the secret drawer in their toolboxes.

More than the others, Isamu was glad that they had listened to the feedback from the first mission. Two of the special devices hadn't been changed in terms of function, but they had been rebuilt to make them more lightweight. Isamu and Hiroki had discovered that lugging around their heavy tool boxes everywhere they went was _very_ tiring. The other two devices did have new functionality though. The communication team had come through again and had something new for them to test… although it was only theoretical that it would work until they attempted it. The belief was that a shrinking remnant of the tunnel would remain for a while, after the team had transitioned across. How strong the tunnel was and how long it would last were complete unknowns. Isamu had chosen Mikio to be their communications experiment guy, but he wasn't the only one getting the training. Iwao was Mikio's backup and Ryota was listening in as well since he was more familiar with electronics and would be going along on the next expedition.

There were members of the health and prep team there as well. Their role had been greatly expanded since the last mission. Since Kotomi still could not be certain about the environment or even the time of year of the destination universe, they were now being prepped for everything that could be imagined. With thermal underwear, waterproof parka's and gloves, self-heating mugs, sunscreen, lip balm, and insect repellent, they looked more like they were going camping, rather than looking like the four man work team they were supposed to be. The new plan was to quickly ascertain the environment, then hide anything they didn't need in the park.

"Hey." Tomoyo said as she laid a hand on Isamu's shoulder.

"Yeah?" he looked up to see her concerned but not nearly as stressed as she had been their first time out.

"Do you feel good about this?" Tomoyo asked him as a team leader. The fact that he was the only one that had any experience bothered her more and more as they got closer to the day of the mission. However, she had seen how diligently they had all been training themselves and had decided to trust Isamu's judgment.

"Yeah." Isamu nodded his head. "If anything, I think we might be over-prepared. I mean, what if we show up in the middle of the day during a baseball game? How are we gonna explain all of this gear?"

"Hmmm," Tomoyo considered it and said, "If four guys suddenly materialize in the middle of center field during a baseball game, I think that would be a hard thing to explain no matter how they were dressed or how much gear they were carrying."

"Yeah… good point." Isamu chuckled.

At that moment, everyone could hear their ear-buds crackle to life with an announcement.

"Attention attention. The countdown is now at fifteen minutes. Could the exploration team to go to the target area now, please." the voice was calm but the announcement triggered excitement in everyone.

"Before you go, I want to show you something." Kotomi called out to Tomoyo and her team as they stood up and grabbed their gear. She pushed her laptop into a better position to show everyone and stood behind her screen.

"Whatcha got, Kotomi-chan?" Isamu asked the girl genius.

"This is the waveform we are going to use this time. After studying the results of the last attempt, I believe I have found the elements that define elasticity and stream relativity of time." Kotomi told them excitedly.

"Huh?" Iwao grunted but he was not the only one that was confused.

"Kotomi-chan… Can you say it in a way that we can all understand it, or do I need to call Melissa over here to interpret for you?" Tomoyo poked at Kotomi.

"Uhmm… I think I understand enough to make sure you are at the same date or the same time when you get to the parallel world. This time, I am shooting for the same date. So please find out what the date there is before you come back. Although… this does mean that you might not be getting there at the time we would like." Kotomi finished talking and looked over to Tomoyo for approval.

"I got it. Thank you Kotomi-chan." Isamu confirmed, then turned to the others he said, "Grab your stuff. It's time to do amazin things!"

.

Several others were waiting at the roped off area around the target site. Youhei was there, but his uniformed officers were all in their crowd control positions. Melissa was there with Hiroki and Takeo. Nagisa and Ryou were there as well. The two girls had come out from the nearby Furukawa residence to watch the show. They had both been patiently sitting in the _designated observation area_ that was essentially the bleachers behind third base. But Hiroki would have none of that. He had been with Melissa while she was conducting a question and answer session with the audience and handing out the special viewing glasses. That was when he had spotted the two girls in the audience. Before they knew what was happening, they were joining Melissa's party and heading for center field. Some of the government functionaries that had been exiled to the designated observation area were a bit miffed that these girls seemed to be getting special treatment, but none of them seemed to feel so strongly about it that they were willing to confront Melissa and her bodyguards on the subject.

"Our send-off gets better each time." Isamu said jokingly as he looked around at all the pretty women that had come to the roped off perimeter. His joke drew smiles from everyone… except Tomoyo.

"Two minutes." the voice in their ears warned.

"Here, put these on." Takeo handed his goggles over to Ryou. "I've seen this show before."

"You can have mine." Hiroki was handing his goggles over to Nagisa when Kotomi stopped him.

"Not Nagisa-chan." Kotomi put her delicate fingers on Hiroki's huge hand to stop him.

"Huh?" Both Nagisa and Hiroki turned to Kotomi in surprise. Hiroki wanted Nagisa to see the strange but pretty lights too. The fact that Kotomi was stopping him was starting to make him angry.

"Nagisa-chan is special… like Tomoya-kun. I want her to watch this with her naked eye. If I am right, she will be able to see the orbs unassisted." Kotomi told the two of them.

"Oh… yeah. Okay." Hiroki had to admit that Nagisa was special. Whether from some other universe, or this one, she was very special to him anyways.

Ryou could see how protective Hiroki was acting and felt a flare of jealousy wash through her. _Hey, your Nagisa is in another universe jerk, this one's mine! No… I… I shouldn't think that way. He was only being nice to Nagisa and I… I shouldn't let something like that bother me._ Her gaze fell on Tomoya standing next to Kotomi and felt a momentary flare of anger before the same internal voice calmed her down again. _It's as if Kotomi isn't even human._ _T_ _he way she thinks_ _is so strange… so different from so many established norms. I wonder if she is even able to understand jealousy? And onee-chan… as explosive as she is… how is she able to live in that environment? The stress must be killing her._

"One minute." the calm voice announced. At that moment, the senior tech opened the rope and let the exploration team through to stand on the designated spot.

"Thirty seconds." All four of the men were standing back to back with their tool boxes and their extra gear in their hands.

"Now Nagisa-chan, I want you to focus on the area around where the exploration team is standing." Kotomi told her friend as she too watched the target area.

"Ten seconds." A murmur came up from the crowd as several people in the audience could now see the strange little light baubles appearing. Many people were taking their glasses off and putting them back on to see if they could figure out how the special effects trick worked.

"Ah! What..." Nagisa was about to ask what the strange lights were when she suddenly had the feeling she had seen them before.

"Nine." The number of light baubles increased. Some of them seemed to come up out of the ground while others materialized out of thin air.

"You can see them, can't you?" Kotomi asked.

"Eight." There were now so many lights that the ground around the four men looked like a carpet of light.

"Yes! They're so pretty!" Nagisa cheered.

"Seven." The lights started their dancing motion. Some of them were bobbing up and down while others seemed to tumble or spin.

"They're moving!" Nagisa was astounded.

"Six." More lights appeared. No longer on the ground, they were also floating in the air like very slow moving fireflies.

"Five." The motion of the lights changed and they all seemed to be moving slowly toward the four men in the center of it all.

"Oh… oh no!" Nagisa saw them moving in on the four men and was worried for them.

"Four." As the lights got closer, they began to speed up and swirl around the four men.

"It's okay. They are harmless." Kotomi reassured Nagisa.

"Three." The light baubles were moving so fast now that they looked like streaks of light rather than distinct baubles.

"Two." None of the four men could be seen any more. They were all buried underneath the blizzard of soft white lights.

"One." Just as they had before, all of the lights suddenly folded back on themselves – dropping to the ground and then rushing up into the cloudy sky in a tall pyre.

"Zero." The lights were gone, leaving behind only an empty center field.

There was a pause as people realized that the four men and all their gear were now gone from the test area. There was disbelief and wonder, but no-one seemed able to speak at the moment. They were all jarred from their stupor when a calm voice made an announcement over the portable speakers.

"Twenty-ten, September twenty-one, 4:55 AM local..." the rest of the announcer's message was drowned out by the sudden burst of applause. The people in the audience were amazed. Few of them knew what to make of it. Some thought it was an elaborate stage trick. Others had a hard time believing what they had seen. Regardless of what had really happened, they had all witnessed something amazing and very entertaining.

"We're going to need more police next time." Youhei said as he too tried to come to grips with the amazing thing he had just seen… and the raucous applause coming from the people in the observation area. Even the skeptical ministry officials had been amazed at what they had seen. He looked over at Kotomi and Tomoya but they seemed intent on something else. They were still staring at the place where the four guys had been standing but their hands were over their ears. He deduced that they were trying to hear what was being said on the ear-buds they were all wearing. Having figured that out, he noticed that Melissa, Tomoyo, her boys, and the technicians that were with them were all doing the same thing. _Hey, how come I didn't get an ear-bud?_

"Standing by for transmission from target." the voice in the ear-buds said. The voice paused and everyone waited to hear from the communications team.

"How long should it take Mikio to get the radio set up and transmit back." Tomoya asked.

"I dunno." Ryota replied with a smirk, "We were concentrating more on doing it right and not breaking anything, than trying to do it quickly."

"Transmission received! I repeat: transmission received." the voice sounded like restrained triumph as it continued to report, "Voice is working. It is still dark at the target location and not terribly cold. They will be hiding their gear in the park. The embedded time-code has been received and is being processed."

"Embedded time-code?" Tomoyo asked.

"If you will recall," Melissa replied since it looked like Kotomi was wrapped up in something her tablet computer was telling her, "on the last expedition, time passed more quickly at the target universe than it did here. The embedded time-code will give us an idea how our time compares to theirs so that we have a better idea of when the expedition team should be ready to come back."

"Hey!" Youhei almost laughed, "I understood that! Are you sure you're a scientist like Kotomi?"

"Ha ha ha!" Melissa laughed, "I am a scientist, but not like Kotomi. There are only a handful of people like her on the whole planet and admittedly, I… am not at that level."

"You don't seem upset about it?" Youhei was a little surprised that she could admit something like that so easily.

"I'm not." Melissa smiled and explained, "Imagine that you were a car. And not just any car… let's say that you were the best Lamborghini that was ever made. There might be a few cars that are a little better than you but there are lots and lots of cars that aren't, right?"

"Yeah." Youhei had to admit that he liked the way this woman explained things. It didn't come out all sciency and he didn't get a headache trying to grasp what she was saying.

"One day, you meet a stealth fighter. It's a lot faster than you. It can do things that you could never dream of. As a car, would you be jealous of that stealth fighter?" Melissa asked.

"Um… no. It's not a car." Youhei answered.

"Exactly!" Melissa chirped.

"Okay…" Youhei understood then. Melissa didn't have to say that there were a lot of things a car could do that a jet airplane couldn't. They each had their uses and she knew what hers was, just as Youhei believed that the best use of his talents was as a detective. Thinking about everything the red headed American had just said, he asked, "So… how soon will we know about the time thing?"

"We already know that the time ratios are close. We should have a more precise answer in about an hour." Melissa replied.

"So… no chance they'll be coming back in the next several hours?" Youhei asked.

"Oh no…" Melissa then caught herself and said, "Well… they shouldn't be. We are going to keep sending the test patterns out at regular intervals so there is a chance they might signal for a premature return if there is some sort of emergency on their side. But, if they aren't having a crisis, there shouldn't be anything interesting happening here until after midnight."

"All right, thanks." Youhei then turned away from the others and brought up his police radio. With a few short instructions, he told the officers that had been assigned to him that they were released as soon as the observation area was cleared out. He asked for two volunteers to stick around and told the rest that they would need to be available for recall starting at midnight the next day.

Kotomi was still pouring over her tablet, but Tomoya and Tomoyo watched Youhei in awe as he confidently issued the orders out to his men over his radio.

"That's just so hard to believe… even though I'm seeing it for myself." Tomoya commented.

"Who would have thought that Sunohara Youhei would become the voice of authority?" Tomoyo added.

"Melissa-chan?" Youhei called out after lowering the hand-held radio and turning back to face the group. "Some of the ministry people would like to know if you or Kotomi-chan could be available for a short question and answer session."

"Can you let them know that I'm on my way over to the pergola now?" Melissa asked Youhei. Then she playfully linked arms with the two shorter but still rather fearsome looking protectors and asked Tomoyo, "Can I borrow your boys for a little bit longer?"

"I need Hiroki for something, but you can have Kenta and Takeo." Tomoyo motioned for Kenta to join the red headed professor then added, "Please try not to get them in any more trouble."

"I'll be coming along too." Youhei added as he started entering a text message on his cell phone while heading off for the pergola.

"Aww." Melissa made a disappointed sound as she un-entwined her arm with Hiroki so he could go to Tomoyo. She watched Kenta approach and unabashedly checked out her hips and boobs. She was about ten centimeters taller than the tough looking man, but it didn't seem to bother him at all.

Kenta liked what he saw. She wasn't super-athletic, but for a brainiac, she was pretty hot. He looked up from her breasts to her face, expecting to see a blush from his blatant sexual harassment. Instead he saw a feral grin and eyes that looked like they were seeing a slab of beef that had just been delivered for her consumption. Before he could say anything, she took his arm like she held Takeo's.

"You heard what your Boss said." Melissa smiled slyly while walking between her two vicious looking bodyguards, "Let's go have some fun!"

"Lady, your idea of fun and our idea of fun ain't necessarily the same thing." Kenta snickered. She had tripped him up with that gaze but he was determined to get the initiative back.

"What makes you think it's not?" Melissa smiled as she let her hand trail down Kenta's back and firmly grasped his butt.

"Ah!" Kenta tripped and stumbled for a moment before regaining his composure.

Nagisa, Ryou, Tomoya and Tomoyo watched the trio walking away for a minute. They were all stunned at how easily the tall red-head could make Tomoyo's tough guys blush. A girl making them feel uneasy was not something any of them were used to.

"Kenta may have met his match with that one." Tomoyo commented and then asked, "Are all Americans like that?"

"No, she is unique even there." Tomoya answered, "She says she drinks like an Irishman and parties like a Brazilian."

"Brazilian? Are they known for their parties?" Hiroki asked.

"Ever heard of _the Carnival_ in Rio de Janeiro?" Tomoya asked.

"Oh… uh… yeah. I didn't know that was in Brazil." Hiroki had seen some erotic magazines with pictures and stories about that legendary Carnival, but he had always thought it was just made up… until now. Remembering what Tomoyo had just said, he turned to her and asked, "So Boss, you got somethin for me?"

"Yeah. There are still a lot of people around. I want you to escort Nagisa and Ryou back to the Bakery. And here…" Tomoyo handed him a wad of Yen notes, "buy a bunch of breakfast breads for you and the boys."

"Yes Boss!" Hiroki liked this assignment. He got to make sure Nagisa was safe and he got to eat some breakfast breads from the Furukawa Bakery too!

.

 **Tuesday morning, September 21 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

The students were all taking tests when the sound of a vibrating cell phone disturbed everyone. Kyou was about to demand to know who had forgotten to silence their phone and put it in the cubby when she realized she could feel the vibration against her leg. Pulling the phone out, she could see it was a text message from Tomoya.

"Bad sensei! You're not following the class rules." the second grade boy admonished his teacher. This created a few giggles around the room.

Kyou glanced at the time on her phone and noticed that there was only a minute left of the test time.

"Quiet until the test time is over. Then I will apologize to the room appropriately." Kyou promised. When the time ran out, she had them pass all their tests to the Kindergarten girl who brought them up to the teacher's desk. "Now then, I do apologize for the interruption of my phone, but I did not break the class rules."

"But…" several voices started to talk at once but Kyou raised a finger and they quieted down to hear the rest of her explanation.

"The deal was that you could have the phone with you if there was a very important reason for it. The reasons could be something like a family emergency or a medical reason. Would you like to hear my reason?"

"Yes!" the young voices chorused.

"This morning, in a city park not too far from this school, something very exciting happened." Kyou looked around the room at the kids to see if she was generating the level of excitement she had hoped to. She was about to ask if anyone knew what it was when she remembered that Shuichi and Shuji were in the room. Of course they knew…

"What? What was it?" the second grade boy asked.

"You see, early this morning a bunch of scientists, police, explorers, and government officials gathered in the park to watch… a science experiment!" Kyou tried to build as much tension as she could… but she could feel it all fall apart with the punch line.

"A science experiment?" the fifth grade boy asked with evident skepticism.

"Yes. They used a particle accelerator…" Kyou tried to explain.

"Four." Shuji said aloud but didn't look up from the drawing he was making in his notebook.

"That's right, four particle accelerators! And, they opened a doorway to another parallel Planet!" Kyou could tell that she wasn't doing a good job of selling this to the kids by the way they were looking at her in disbelief.

"Universe." Shuji offered another correction.

"Yes, another parallel universe!" Kyou looked over at Yuki who had her hand covering her face in an effort to hide her laughter.

"This morning?" the fifth grader looked at Kyou as if she had lost her mind.

"Yes." Kyou answered. She was glad that at least one person in the room was interested enough to ask questions, but she wasn't pleased that he obviously didn't believe her.

"In a city park?" the fifth grader asked again.

"Yes." Kyou could see that this wasn't going in the direction she wanted it to at all.

"I don't believe it." the fifth grader said and several of the other students were agreeing with him.

"It's true." Shuichi told the rest of the class, "My Okāsan made the machines that are doing it."

"Really?" the fifth grade boy still sounded full of disbelief, but he knew that Shuichi's mother was Ichinose Kotomi and how impressed his own parents were with the famed girl genius. _But still why would anyone do something so important and amazing in this small town and in a city park?_

"Believe it or don't believe it, but they're going to do it again." Yuki announced to the room in an effort to save her senpai, Kyou. She held up a bunch of forms and waited until all the kids were looking at the forms in her hand and wondering what it was all about. "These are permission slips to go on an overnight field trip with the whole class. If you don't think this is at least a little interesting, I can just throw these away." Yuki's hand dropped toward the trash can that was conveniently next to her right foot.

"No!" the class yelled as one.

"I want to see the ex-per-mint!" the first grade girl cried out.

"Me too!" several others agreed.

"All right! Here's what you'll need to do. I will need this permission form signed by all of your parents and you will need the things listed on the second page." Kyou told the now excited kids.

"Jacket and gloves? Why will we need that?" the fourth grade boy asked.

"If you look at the form, you'll see that the next experiment will be early in the morning on the nineteenth of October. That's almost a month away and we don't know what the weather will be like so you should have that ready because you might need it." Kyou explained.

.

A few minutes later, Yuki and Kyou sat across from each other at Kyou's desk while the kids were having lunch. The two adults were grading the tests and eating their lunch while also monitoring the room. That part wasn't as difficult as it had been in the beginning. There was nothing like success to make kids feel better about themselves. And when they felt that way, they were generally better behaved kids. Generally… they had been keeping an eye on Maiko since she arrived in their class, but it looked like her bullying days were over.

"I counted fourteen students." Yuki smirked while she pored over one of the tests.

"Fourteen? I'm only supposed to have…" she let the words fade away when she saw the girl in the Hikarizaka High School uniform sitting at the same table with Shuichi, Shuji, and Maiko-chan. Kyou chuckled. It was impossible to explain to Fuko that she couldn't have lunch with her niece and… it seemed that Maiko was even better behaved when she was there anyway.

"So, do you really think it's a good idea… taking them to the next experiment?" Yuki asked.

"Are you kidding?" Kyou almost gasped at her surprise from that question. Keeping her voice low, she said, "They're going to see that amazing light show and then four men just disappear! Along with all the other pomp and ceremony, I'm expecting to see thirteen kids that haven't got a clue what they want to be when they grow up – suddenly decide that they want to be scientists. I'm hoping that will keep their interest up in math and science for a decade!"

"That's a good plan, but what if something goes wrong with the experiment?" Yuki said with concern.

"That text message I got earlier. It was from Tomoya. Kotomi is getting better at sending them to… wherever it is that they go. And this evening or tomorrow morning we'll know if her people are getting better at bringing them back too. If we don't think it's safe for the kids, we can always cancel. But… I'd like to get everything set up for this field trip on the assumption that everything will be all right." Kyou defended her plan to enthuse these kids with a thirst for knowledge.

"Yeah… as long as we can cancel if something goes wrong. I guess it's okay." Yuki agreed.

"Now, all I have to do is convince the parents." Kyou said glumly.

"I really don't think that's going to be a problem." Yuki was in agreement with Kotomi on this point. In fact, from the conversations she had with several parents, and how positive they were about Kyou' program, Kotomi's projections were probably a bit too conservative. _There's just no way we're going be able to keep this program to just one classroom next year._

.

 **Tuesday morning, September 21? - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"You're kidding, right?" Isamu asked Iwao in disbelief.

"Nope. Some dude lef his phone in his car an I gots da time an date offit easy." Iwao was happy with himself for being so observant - like Isamu and the Boss told him to. As soon as they were in the new place, he and Mikio walked around the edge of the park and tried to see what all was different. The most obvious thing that was different was that there was no-one around. Then they noticed the trucks weren't there either. That's when Iwao spotted the car parked on the street with one of the windows down. To his good fortune, a cell phone was laying in the passenger seat. Using a trick he had seen on a crime show, he picked up the phone with a napkin and pressed the button to see the time and date display. Then he put the cell phone back where he found it and continued walking around the park. So, if the phone was right, they had arrived very close to when they left… but they were still off by several hours.

"So, it's still the night of the 20th and we have to wait for six hours before even the bakery opens? Great." Isamu looked around at their situation. They were in luck in that the part of this park where the beach volleyball court should have been was overgrown with bushes and trees. They were all hidden quite well, and the sleeping bags were covered in a camouflage print, so… "All right, let's set alarms for 5AM and get some sleep… or at least try to."

"Boss, I drank three cups of coffee before we left. I don't think I can sleep." Takeshi whispered.

"We all drank coffee. Just do the best you can." Isamu whispered back. Then all four of the men froze.

The sound of mumbled voices and footsteps coming toward them could be heard through the bushes they were all hiding under. It was not good that someone was close to finding them so soon after their arrival. Then things went from bad to worse when the next sound they heard was a police radio.

"Unit 19 is at the park now." one of the cops said.

"What's this all about?" the other cop asked. He seemed to have a younger voice.

"Someone said they saw a drunk trying to get into a car parked on the street." the older cop replied.

"So what are we doing in the park?" the younger cop asked.

"Add it up. Drunk and park, right?" the older cop sounded more experienced and seemed to be lecturing the younger cop, "We'll probably find the drunk asleep in the park. Get it?"

"I see. So, we check the bleachers, dugouts, and park benches. Right?" the younger cop asked.

"Now you're getting it!" the older cop sounded happy that the younger cop had been able to figure it out on his own. Isamu could hear a congratulatory shoulder smack even if all he could see of the two cops was their shoes and a bit of their trousers.

"But, what if we don't find him in any of those places?" the younger cop asked.

"Simple, we just call for the dogs!" the older cop laughed.

Isamu could hear them both laughing as they walked away toward the baseball field.

 _Dogs?_ _O_ _h shit!_ It seemed that all four of the men had that thought at the moment.


	15. Chapter 15 - Kotomi's Surprise

**Tuesday morning, September 21 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"Boss, we gotta get outa here!" Mikio hissed.

"I know, I know! Gimme a minit… and don't call me boss!" Isamu hissed back. He was trying to run through the possibilities that were reasonable.

 _There's no point in trying to get to the Crossroads Bar. It's too far away and we're sure to be stopped and questioned along the way._

 _We could make it to the Furukawa Bakery… but then what? It's too late to try Kenta's workmen-for-a-day gambit._

 _The Ichinose house? It's relatively close by, but what do we do when we get there? If Kotomi-chan isn't living there, we might be able to break in… and if she is? I wonder… would_ _she_ _believe me if I told her that the Kotomi-chan from another parallel world sent us?_ Just as he was pondering whether or not they should try to make contact with this world's Kotomi, he realized that he was staring up through the branches of a low tree at a broken park light. Eyes opened wide and a smile started to replace the concerned expression on his face. That broken light had given him an idea.

"Takeshi, you were the one that picked the lock on the maintenance shed when The Boss broke that light in the park, right?" Isamu asked.

"Uh, yeah… I already said I was sorry." Takeshi remembered how upset The Boss had been that they had so easily reverted to criminal ways. But Tomoya had later praised him on his ingenuity.

"I'm not worried about that. Can you do it again… and in the dark?" Isamu asked.

"Piece of cake!" Takeshi smiled. Before switching to a life of… not-crime, lock-picking had been a skill that he had been quite proud of.

"All right, everyone up and follow me. Bring your tool boxes. Leave everything else." Isamu whispered.

Mikio and Takeshi looked at each other and wondered what he could be thinking. But he was the only one that had done this before so… what the hell.

Isamu crept to the edge of the bushes to listen and watch as well as he could without giving himself away. In the distance, he could see the flashlight beams of the two cops over near the baseball field. Knowing that the others would quickly follow him out of the bushes, he moved without saying anything. At first, Takeshi and Mikio were crouching as if they were trying not to be seen, but they noticed that Isamu was walking with sure, confident strides _toward_ the cops! Rather, they were walking in the same general direction. It soon became apparent that their destination was the old maintenance shed. So, instead of hiding, or even slouching, they followed Isamu's lead and soon all four of them were walking through the dark park as if they were supposed to be there.

"Iwao, go turn on the park lights." Isamu said aloud.

"Which ones?" Isamu asked.

"All of them." he smiled with confidence. They already sounded like workmen. After all, this was something they had practiced dozens of times… although never in the dark. Still, he was sure now that this would work.

They made it to the shed and the first lights were starting to come up over the tennis courts when the police noticed them and headed over to the maintenance shed. By the time they arrived, Takeshi already had the lock picked and they were pulling the ladder out.

"What's going on here?" the younger cop asked while shining his flashlight into their faces.

"Baka!" Isamu covered his eyes and most of his face and stepped toward the cop so he couldn't get a good look at the others either. "Get that flashlight out of my face, kid – and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"Why should I lower the light?" the young cop countered.

"Because we're maintenance men and working with spots in our eyes from some idiot's flashlight can cause someone to get injured or killed. Do you want to make the police department responsible for that?" Isamu groaned the words out as if it wasn't the first time he had to explain safety reasons to someone in authority.

"Lower the flashlight." the older cop told his younger partner. Then, turning to Isamu he asked, "Kinda late to be working in the park isn't it?"

"Naw, this is the best time." Isamu lowered his hand and tried to relax into the role he was playing. "Nobody around. You don't have to worry about dropping a tool on or hitting someone with a ladder. And, it's a lot easier to see which lights are out."

"Hmm… yeah, I guess it would be. So you're fixing the lights tonight?" the old cop asked. The more relaxed tone of his voice already told Isamu that the older cop had bought it, even if the younger cop was still looking suspicious.

"We'll fix up as many as we can. Replacing light bulbs is easy. Simple repairs ain't too bad in the dark. But if it's real messed-up, we'll have to put in a work order and do it in the day time. But, uh… what are the cops doin out here? Is it too dangerous for us to work tonight?"

"Shouldn't be." the old cop seemed fully relaxed now, but he also seemed like the type to do a thorough job… especially if he had a new and impressionable kid with him. "A neighbor called in. Said they saw a vagrant breaking into a car on the street over there."

"Over there?" Isamu followed the gesture of the cop and turned to Mikio. Intentionally not saying his name, he asked, "Yo… isn't that were you guys saw the car with the window rolled down?"

"Um… yeah. That's right." Mikio couldn't believe Isamu just admitted to having anything to do with the reason why the cops were called out here, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Damn, that's harsh! I mean… we don't have pretty uniforms like you guys, but _vagrants!_ " Isamu complained to the cops.

"So, you guys broke into the car?" the young cop sounded alarmed.

"Baka! Kid, how long have you been a policeman? Now listen and learn the right way to question someone." Isamu waved to the older cop to proceed.

"Heh heh." the older cop couldn't help but laugh at how this maintenance man was twisting up his rookie, "You saw something over there, did you?"

"Yeah, well… not me but one of my guys thought he heard a baby crying. Saw the open window and took a quick look to make sure someone didn't leave an infant in their car. But… no baby after all." Isamu said.

"You know it's illegal to go rifling around through someones car." the older cop raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say nothin about rifling through a car. I said 'quick look' and that's all." Isamu countered. He was familiar with this kind of song and dance. It seemed that cops in this universe were not all that different from the ones in his own. He continued his justification to the older cop by adding, "Besides, if there had been a baby left in that car, we could have rifled it all we want and it would have been the car owner that woulda been in trouble, right?"

"Okay… you got me there." the older cop chuckled and said to the younger officer, "Let's go. These men need to get to work."

"What? That's it?" the younger officer gaped. "What about the dogs?"

"Ha ha ha!" the older officer laughed, "Kid, we don't have a K9 unit in this little town! I was joking about that. Besides, even if we did have one, what would we ask them to do? We already know who it was that was looking in the car." the old cop wagged his head at the ignorance of youth.

"So… we're just leaving then?" the young cop sounded disappointed that their big mystery was all over.

"Not quite." the older cop threw him a bone, "We'll go look for the car with the window down. We can run the plates and maybe dispatch can give them a call and tell them to go roll up their window.  
After all… it's supposed to rain tonight."

"Oh, officer!" Isamu called out as they were leaving, "When is that rain supposed to be here?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure you fellas will be long gone by then." the older cop told them, "It shouldn't start to rain until around 4AM."

"Thanks!" Isamu turned and faced his crew.

"Rain?" Mikio asked.

"Yeah… either the cop has it wrong, or the weather is different in this world. We were supposed to have clear skies all night and all day tomorrow."

"So… what do we do now?" Takeshi asked.

"We fix da lites!" Iwao said with a smirk. "An we do it like we wanna get home quick-like."

"Huh?" Mikio gaped at Iwao, "the cops are gone. Why do we gotta do this now?"

"Cause they might come back." Isamu grumbled, "Iwao's right. Let's get to work."

"What about the rain?" Takeshi asked.

"You let me worry about that. For now, concentrate on the work… but while you're goin all over the park, look around and see if there isn't a better place for our stuff."

.

 **Tuesday noon, September 21 – Family Restaurant near the train station**

* * *

Kotomi and Tomoya sat opposite two men in business suits while they waited on their food. The staff of the restaurant wasn't accustomed to seeing business people meeting there. It was more like the kind of place that high school kids went to study with their friends or on dates. Local families would also dine there in the evenings or on holidays. So, seeing three men in suits and one woman in a lab coat was… odd.

"We could have eaten in a nicer place." the MEXT said disparagingly.

"This place is more convenient. I'm sure you'll want to take the next train back to Tokyo as soon as we're done here." Tomoya told him. Tomoya did not like the Minister, but he tried not to show it too much.

"Now listen here, young man…" the MEXT started to shout. A blood vessel on his forehead was throbbing dangerously and his eyes looked like they might bulge out of his head soon.

"Let's everyone calm down." the other older man at the table said. It was hard to tell which of the two was the elder. The Minister still had a full head of hair although it was showing significant graying. The other gentleman had lost most of his hair already, but had a happy – almost childlike face. He had not given his name but the MEXT called him Mr. Secretary and looking at his lapel pin, anyone that paid attention to politics would know his party affiliation.

"I'm not upset, but I am curious." Tomoya said as he calmly sipped his coffee. "Why would someone from the New Komeito party be traveling with this man? Their platform pushes the ideology of small government and transparency, while the Minister here is actively trying to underhandedly steal my wife's life's work."

"Underhandedly!" the Minister vented but the other gentleman cut him off with a guffaw of laughter.

"Oh, very good Okazaki-san!" Mr. Secretary seemed genuinely pleased at Tomoya, "I had heard some interesting things about you and it's wonderful to see that it's all true. As to why we are here together, there are several truths about that. Which would you like to hear?"

"I've got time. Let's hear all of them." Tomoya said with a poker face. He wasn't really sure how much time he had. Kotomi was still working on the time computation that would tell them when they should be able to expect the exploration party back. But neither of these two _guests_ knew that.

"Fine. Fine." Mr. Secretary almost giggled in delight, "But before I begin, may I ask if you have any interest in joining my party?"

"What?" the Minister gaped, "You can't be serious."

"It's all fair in politics." Mr. Secretary laughed, "Besides, after how badly you've behaved to young Okazaki-san, do you really think he'd have any interest in joining _your_ party?"

"To be honest, I had already been interested in joining the New Komeito party." Tomoya admitted.

Both of the men turned to look at him with a bit of surprise then.

"I did a little research into why my mother died when I was young. Her life was taken due to a traffic accident that wouldn't have happened with today's safety laws. Those safety laws were put in place by the old Komeito party and would have been in place in time to save my mother… if they hadn't been opposed by other parties."

"Oh." Mr. Secretary finally lost much of his giggly bounciness. He had read through a dossier on the young man across the table from him, on the train from Tokyo. It was well detailed, but it didn't go into his family history enough to have warned him about that topic. Instead of possibly humiliating himself or offending the young man, he pulled out his card and pushed it across the table to Tomoya. "This may not be the best time, and I apologize for that. But, if you decide you would like to talk to me about it, I will take your call at any time."

"Thank you, Mr. Secretary." Tomoya did the expected review of the card before putting it away. Then he turned his attention to the now serious man.

"First of all I should admit that, although the Minister and I do not see eye to eye on matters of politics, we are actually childhood friends." Mr. Secretary said.

"I didn't know you until Junior High School!" the Minister barked.

"Oh come now. As old as we are, that qualifies as childhood, don't you think?" some of Mr. Secretary's giddiness seemed to be coming back as he teased his old friend.

"Secondly, I find this avenue of research to be quite fascinating! I have long been a fan of science fiction stories and this is like a dream come true if you can get it to work." Mr. Secretary almost cheered. His sunshiny mood was fully restored now.

"What do you mean _if?_ We just sent the second expedition out this morning." Tomoya leaned back in his chair while the waitress delivered their food to the table.

"WHAT?" Mr. Secretary almost caused the waitress to drop several plates with his outburst. Then he glared at his _childhood friend_ and said, "I wasn't told anything about that?"

"Don't blame me!" the Minister sounded flustered. As he tried to form words, his cheeks puffed with air and he would make several popping noises before he could finally get a word out, "Everything is _alleged_ until there is solid proof."

"You really are an idiot aren't you." Mr. Secretary stated more than asked. "How can they bring back proof? They're going to a parallel world. It's exactly like our own. Anything they bring back would look like something that naturally occurs here."

"Oh… yeah." the Minister hated these arguments with his old friend. They never seemed to end well for him, and they always resulted in him apologizing for something.

"Anyway… the third reason I am here has nothing to do with him and sadly has nothing to do with you or your lovely wife either. You see… that idiot that is cooking his heels in your town jail is my cousin." Mr. Secretary stated. "I am impressed that you got the local law enforcement on your side though."

"Excuse me?" Tomoya gestured for Mr. Secretary to clarify what he had just said.

"To have him arrested instead of the hoodlum that beat him up was quite a feat, I must say." Mr. Secretary explained.

"So that was the story you heard?" Tomoya laughed in a disparaging way. "That is a pretty creative spin on the truth. I did warn him not to screw with me or any of the people I hold dear though."

"Huh?" Are you admitting that you had that hoodlum beat him up?" the Minister asked while Tomoya swiped his screen and touched it a few times.

"No." Tomoya said simply and then asked, "Minister, have you ever used one of the popular video streaming sites on the internet?"

"Well… yes." he answered but felt that the question was bait and he was walking into a trap.

"You should watch this short video clip. I'm sure you will find it entertaining, and Mr. Secretary will find it… enlightening."

For the next several minutes, the four people at the table enjoyed some of their lunch. The two visitors watched a video on Tomoya's phone while Tomoya watched them. Kotomi was barely aware of any of this. Her tablet computer was open and she was going over the latest data feed from the park.

Regardless of their political viewpoints, the two men watching the streaming video both felt sick as they watched a colleague and a cousin descend into shame by his own actions. Mr. Secretary actually recoiled in his seat when they saw the man lunge at the tall woman. They could both see now that the events were not as they had been led to believe.

"You… you are threatening to put this on some kind of social media?" the Minister asked.

"Absolutely not." Tomoya replied and saw the momentary relief in the Minister's face, "It is already there. You just watched a video that was streamed from YouTube."

"What?" the Minister gaped but Mr. Secretary seemed introspective.

"I put it up as soon as I heard about the lie that he told to his cousin. He was making threats about what he would do to destroy me and everyone else in this town. I told you that I warned him, didn't I? This method seemed to me to be the most expedient way to resolve the problem."

"By ruining him first?" the Minister looked appalled.

"Of course." Tomoya turned to Mr. Secretary and said, "I do apologize to you for having to do that to a family member, but I could not ignore his threats to my family and friends."

"No apology necessary." Mr. Secretary waved Tomoya off, "I had no idea he was like that when he was on his own."

"But…" the Minister was still feeling ruffled that one of his higher ranking men was sitting in a local jail. His focus was soon redirected by the wisdom of his friend.

"Enough of that. It's time for you to start thinking of damage control. I suggest that you fire him immediately and make a public statement that such heavy-handedness will not be tolerated under your management of the ministry… or something to that effect." Mr. Secretary told his long-time friend.

"Mr. Secretary, will you be busy on the 19th of October?" Tomoya asked, after carefully thinking it over for several seconds.

"I'm not sure. I would have to check with my office. Why do you ask?" Mr. Secretary queried. His eyes were open a bit wider and he looked to the young man with piqued interest.

"Early that morning will be the date of the next test. I thought that you and the Minister might like to come and observe the next experiment, when we send the next expedition to another world. Does that sort of thing interest you?" Tomoya laid out the bait. Everyone that had seen it so far had been mesmerized. He just knew that it would be a hit with at least one of them.

"Absolutely!" Mr. Secretary immediately chirped.

"Observe… so we'll be in the bleachers?" the Minister asked with some disdain in his voice. He had already seen several reports of how his people had been… handled.

"Oh no, I'll make sure you are right there at ring-side with me. But still… at a safe distance." Tomoya assured them.

"Okazaki-sama, I look forward to it!" Mr. Secretary grinned his obvious exhilaration at such a wonderful offer, then turned to his old friend and said, "And you do too."

"Yes… thank you Okazaki-san." the Minister bowed with grudging admiration at how well this young man had played his hand.

"Thank you for meeting with us Minister, Mr. Secretary. But we should probably be getting back to the park now." Tomoya said as he got to his feet and offered his hand to Kotomi.

"There's no hurry, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi said as she took his hand and collected her tablet and purse. "I have finished analyzing the time codes and we have quite a while before the exploration team returns."

"That's amazing, Kotomi-chan. Good work." Tomoya gave her an endearing smile as he caressed her neck and patted her on the shoulder.

"Mmmm." Kotomi blushed at his praise and audibly moaned when his hand had touched her neck.

"So, when are they expected back?" Tomoya pulled out his phone and got ready to send the information to everyone working on the project.

"They should be coming back between 6PM and Midnight on Thursday." Kotomi answered brightly.

"Thursday?" Tomoya blinked.

"Yes!" Kotomi seemed excited and didn't catch on that Tomoya was worried.

"Kotomi-chan… Are they going to be okay… being away for that long?" Tomoya was also worried about how Tomoyo would react when she heard about this.

"Huh?" Kotomi didn't understand Tomoya's question and gave him a puzzled look.

"I'm worried about the exploration team. I don't think we gave them enough supplies to be away for three days." Tomoya explained his concern.

"Oh, don't be concerned about that. The time streams are asynchronous." Kotomi replied.

"Huh?" both Tomoya and the Minister gaped.

"Just a minute." Mr. Secretary asked, "Do you mean to say that the passage of time in the universe where they are… is different than it is here?"

"Possibly." Kotomi seemed thrilled to be talking to someone with similar interests, "I haven't determined that yet. It could be that the passage of time is constant in both places, but the construct we are using to bridge our universe to the other universe is causing the differential."

"Fascinating!" Mr. Secretary sounded overjoyed at this little gem of science. In truth, he did not fully understand what Kotomi was saying, but he enjoyed hearing the technical wizardry anyway.

"Mr. Secretary, would you like to come back on Thursday and watch the return of the exploration team?" Tomoya offered.

"Oh, I would dearly love to… but there is a full session of the National Diet and…" the old man said with genuine sorrow.

"Well then, please look forward to watching the next experiment on the nineteenth of October." Tomoya smiled.

.

 **Tuesday early afternoon, September 21 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Tomoyo was taking a nap in one of the chairs under the preparation pergola near the baseball field when she was awakened by her cell phone. At first, she wondered if it might be the Mayor's office wondering what she was up to. She hadn't sent in a daily report as yet and she knew the Mayor was keen to find out how things went.

When he had first asked her to send in these reports, Tomoyo had a bad feeling that he was asking her to spy on her friends for him. But she soon discovered that it was something much less sinister than that. His goals were simple. He wanted to do whatever it took to make sure Kotomi, and her research, and all the business that was generated from her program… stayed right here in this town. The declining birth rate was troublesome enough – but it irked city leaders to see someone struggle to achieve something significant, and then leave for Tokyo or one of the other big cities as soon as they were successful.

Tomoyo lazily gazed at the message on her phone. Something didn't make sense so she again read the text message on her phone and woke up quickly. Her eyes popped wide open and her powder blond hair hair arched up into the air and spilled all around her as she sat up suddenly. She read the message a third time to make sure she understood what Tomoya said. Looking around, she spied Hiroki, Kenta, Ryota and Takeo at a table playing cards with Melissa and Youhei. Youhei was still playing cards but Melissa was also looking at her phone. Walking over to the table, she sat down next to Youhei.

"You didn't get a message?" she asked him.

"I did, but I'm waiting for Miss. Genius here to tell me what it means." Youhei smirked, "I think Tomoya's been around Kotomi too long. He's even starting to sound like her."

"Okay… first of all, everything is fine." Melissa spoke slowly and as reassuringly as she could. She made sure she got that point out since she saw concern on several faces. "The important thing to understand here is that time can move at different speeds in different universes… or it appears to move at a different speed because of the way we are connecting to the other universe. The important thing is that they will only be there one day when they return to us. But, on our side, almost three days will have gone by."

"Do they know that?" Kenta asked.

"No… they have the tools to figure it out if they needed to." Melissa was thinking of the special devices they carried in the bottoms of their tool boxes, "But there is really no need for them to know. As long as _we_ are here to do _our_ job when it is time for them to come back… they'll be fine."

"Melissa, I for one am really glad you're here." Youhei said as he shuffled the cards on the table.

"Why? I couldn't have figured out the time issue without a lot of help and a lot more time." Melissa admitted.

"Not for that." Youhei looked up to her with a grin, "You're a great translator. I understood you a lot better than Tomoya's message."

"Yeah, me too." Hiroki added.

"Ha ha ha!" Melissa laughingly said, "I finally found some guys that understand me and wouldn't you know it? One of them is married and the other is already in love with another girl!"

Everyone laughed with Melissa even if the comment made Tomoyo wonder if anyone would ever truly understand her.

.

 **Tuesday late morning, September 21 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"You guys get this wrapped up quick. I'm gonna go see what I can find out at the bakery." Isamu told the three guys working on the last light pole near the baseball field. He would rather have sent in someone like Kenta, but this was the wrong mix for that. Mikio and Takeshi were both good in a fight but lacked quite a bit in social skills… at least for something like trying to chat up one of the Furukawas. Whereas Iwao was more personable, he also made a pretty bad first impression due to his sloppy speech habits. Well… there was nothing for it. This responsibility fell to him after all.

Crossing the street to the small bakery, he could smell the bread before he ever got to the door. Walking in, he heard the jingle of the bell and saw the welcoming smile from… Sanae-san?

"Good morning!" Sanae called out from behind a row of snack breads that she was setting out on display.

"Good morning Sanae-san." Isamu tried to sound as pleasant as he could. He had almost removed his had before remembering the communications and recording gear that were installed in it.

"Oh, do I know you?" Sanae asked.

"We just met once, I think." Isamu tried the friend-of-a-friend gambit. "I knew some of your daughter's friends back when they were in high school."

"You look a little old to have been in her graduating class." Sanae asked suspiciously.

"Oh, that I am!" Isamu laughed nervously. _Dammit, I wish Kenta could be here now. He pulls this kind of thing off so easily it made me think I could do it. But also… and importantly… Nagisa-chan finished High School in this universe!_ "Ah… I'm the older brother of a student that was a grade behind her. Do you remember Miyazawa Yukine?"

"I can't say that I do, but I didn't get to meet all of her friends either." Sanae didn't remember Nagisa ever mentioning that name, but there was something about the name that seemed to ring a bell.

"How about the Fujibayashi twins. Do you remember them?" Isamu asked.

"Now those girls I know!" Sanae almost laughed. "How could I not know Ryou-chan? Nagisa was stuck to that girl so much she wouldn't even let her go off to college alone!"

"Ah! So, Nagisa-chan made it into college with Ryou-chan?" Isamu prodded.

"I wish I could say that she did. Unfortunately, she had some… health issues around exam time and didn't do too well on her scores." Sanae said with some regret.

"Oh yes, the unexplainable illness where she gets cold?" Isamu blurted out and then almost panicked when he realized how much he had said.

"Ooooh," Sanae's eyes were opened in amazement and it seemed the suspicion was all washed away, "I guess you really did know my daughter if you knew that. You must have known Nagisa or Ryou pretty well then. But why are you asking about them? You haven't kept in touch with them? Have you been away for a while?"

"Oh… yes. I'm part of a work crew and we move around a lot. We fixed all the lights in the park last night and…"

"Oh! But we haven't gathered up all the money yet!" Sanae looked concerned.

"Huh?" Isamu was stunned and had no idea what she was talking about now.

"Huh?" Sanae couldn't figure out why he didn't know what she was talking about. Explaining slowly, she said, "The money from the community… for the Park Repair Fund?"

"Oh yes… the Park Repair Fund… of course!" WHAT THE HELL IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?

"Right!" Sanae dashed for the door to the residence, "If you'll wait here for a moment, I'll be right back with the money."

"Okay." Isamu answered in the friendliest way he could but he really just wanted to run for it. The conversation had suddenly gone off in a weird direction and he wasn't sure about anything any more. But it was Sanae… she had always been so kind. If he could be sure of anything, it was that Sanae could be trusted not to try and do him any harm. Or at least he wanted to believe that. Just as he was reconsidering that position, Sanae burst back through the door with a pencil case that looked like something Nagisa might have used once.

"We've only been able to gather a hundred and fifty thousand so far, but we can have the rest for you if you can come back on Sunday. And Nagisa will be home then so you two could catch up!" Sanae was holding the pencil case open and displaying an assortment of paper currency.

Isamu could see a lot of Hideyos and Ichiyos and even several Fukuzawas. As tempting as it was to grab it all and run, he knew they wouldn't be able to use it when they got back to their own world. Sunohara had made that quite clear. Instead, he reached into the pencil case and pulled out four Ichiyos from the carefully folded currency.

"What? Just twenty-thousand?" Sanae sounded confused.

"That's all we need for working on the lights." Isamu said.

"But… I can't keep this. The whole community pitched in. What should I do with the rest?" she now sounded perplexed.

"There are a lot of things in the park that need work. I'm sure you could use it to fund some other projects." Isamu suggested.

"Yes… that sounds like a wonderful Idea!" Sanae's good mood recovered completely as she folded up the old pencil case.

Just then, the bell over the door rang and, as she greeted the new customers, Isamu slipped out the door to rejoin the group in the park.

.

"Boss, howd it go?" Iwao asked as Isamu sat down at the park bench with the others.

"Don't call me boss. But surprisingly… it went well." Isamu quietly told them in a quiet voice, "Sanae-san was working alone in there. I don't know why she isn't teaching and she's never heard of Yukine-sama. But, Nagisa-chan and Ryou-chan are together in this universe. Nagisa finished High School and is living with Ryou now. I didn't get anything on anyone else."

"What was the surprising part?" Mikio asked.

"We got paid." He showed them the four 5,000 yen notes that Sanae had given him.

"What the… you didn't rob her did ya?" Takeshi gaped.

"Baka!" Isamu grimmaced, "We just lucked out. It seems their neighborhood organization has been collecting money for renovating this park. When I told her that we spent the night fixing all the lights, she insisted on paying me."

"Hmmm… You got lucky going to the Furukawa Bakery on your first trip didn't ya?" Mikio asked. With the screwed up expression on his normally blank face, it was obvious that he was trying to figure something out.

"Yeah, we did." Isamu admitted.

"We should make that place our first stop on every visit." Mikio suggested. "That place is lucky for us."

"Heh… you may be right." Isamu agreed. He knew that some day, their luck might run out, but it wasn't a bad idea to always check in at the Furukawa Bakery first since they were in the park just across the street from there anyway. "But for now, let's split up. Mikio and Takeshi will head to the Okazaki house. Iwao and I will head for the Fujibayashi house. We'll meet up at the Ichinose house at sunset."

"Huh? It won't take that long to check on the Okazaki place." Takeshi said.

"Don't walk too fast. It draws attention. And here..." he handed each of them one of the 5,000 yen notes, "stop somewhere and get some lunch first. Try not to spend everything and… _no booze_!"

"Aww, yer no fun." Iwao grumbled. He really did like to have a beer with his lunch.

"Look guys, you get even a little drunk here and you might screw up. But when we get back to our universe, Kotomi-chan is gonna throw us an all-you-can-eat-and-drink party like she did last time." Isamu smiled and asked, "Does _that_ sound like fun?"

The message only took a second to sink in. The last time that the exploration team came back – Iwao, Mikio, and Takeshi had watched while the four guys who had gone on the first mission were treated to an incredible meal and what must have been a full keg of beer. This time… this time it would be their turn!

"Hell yeah!" his comrades all agreed… with enthusiasm.

.

 **Wednesday evening, September 22 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

"Koumura-san?" Kyou called out to the elder gentleman as he and the maid finished cleaning up after the dinner preparation.

"Kyou-chan, how can I help you?" his voice cracked a little from under his heavy mustache.

"You can go to bed. We can take care of the dinner dishes." Kyou insisted, "Or is it your plan to give me wrinkles from worrying about you too much?"

"Oh, I see. So it is finally time for my revenge is it?" Koumura asked.

"Hah?" Kyou hadn't expected the old man to say something like that.

"You see," he leaned close to Kyou and pointed at his face, "I got all these wrinkles from worrying about you."

There was perhaps two heartbeats before both Kyou and Koumura started laughing. His face was so wrinkled now that it was impossible to tell if his eyes were open. But part of Kyou wondered if those self-destructive months back in High School might have actually given the old man one or two of his seemingly infinite cache of wrinkles.

.

When Koumura agreed to head off to his room to get some well deserved rest, the maid also started to follow him. But Kyou caught the maid's sleeve.

"Miss?" the maid said no more though. When she looked up at Kyou, she could see the finger on the lips of the lavender haired woman. They both waited silently until Koumura was through the living room before Kyou spoke.

"I'm worried about him." Kyou confided.

"Oh, he'll be just fine in the morning. He just needs some rest." the maid promised, but she looked worried and her voice trembled a bit.

"I think it's more than that." Kyou confided, "I think he's doing too much."

"Miss… you're not thinking of letting him go are you?" the maid looked genuinely worried now. She appreciated the old man greatly. Koumura had been a kind mentor and had helped her to become a better maid in the short time that she had been working for the Okazaki family. But it was true that certain things were starting to get difficult for him.

"Heh… you don't know about our history, do you?" Kyou asked in a chuckle and a re-assuring voice.

"I know that he was your butler when you were studying abroad." the maid offered.

"Before that, he was the counselor at the High School I went to. At the beginning of my last year there, I did something bad. Something that might have killed someone… someone that I loved. I was ready to give up on everything. I was even ready to give up on myself… but he wouldn't let me." Kyou had visibly paled while telling all of this to the maid, but she seemed to be getting her color back as she continued, "He worked through my parents and my friends to save me. He never gave up on me, so don't you worry about me giving up on him."

"Yes miss!" the maid now saw Kyou-sama in a new light. She had always believed that there was a closeness between the Okazaki family and their butler, but it was a pleasant feeling to discover just how close they really were.

"Right now, I just want you to help me watch him. If it looks like he's wearing himself out or if something happens to increase the workload, I'll talk to Tomoya and Kotomi about bringing another person on to help. Do you know anyone you could recommend?"

"Yes miss. I have a cousin that is already has some experience as a maid, but…" she started to falter.

"What? You can tell me." Kyou insisted.

"The place where she is working is not… very nice. I'm sure she would come to work for you if I talked to her." the maid sounded hopeful.

"All right. I don't think there's any reason to worry the others about this. Let's just keep it between you and me, okay?" Kyou smiled, "I'll let you know if I think we need to call your cousin."

"Yes miss." the maid was glad that Kyou-sama was willing to consider her cousin on only her recommendation, but she wished that Kyou would decide now instead of waiting. Who knew how long it would be until Kyou decided that there was enough change to warrant bringing in more help.

.

"Sorry that took so long." Kyou said as she returned to the dining room and sat down at the table with the others.

It was late and the children were already in bed. This was the time that the adults in the house would sit around the table and discuss the important parts of the day. It was a time to relax, but also a time to bring up anything new that might affect the household. As the butler, Koumura would usually join them for this, but Kyou was right and he had been looking very tired. So this evening those sitting around the table were Tomoya, Kotomi, Kyou, Yuki, Melissa, and Tomoyo. The maid had followed Kyou into the room but stood at the doorway to the kitchen waiting to see if anyone might need something.

"I sent Koumura-san to bed so I'll be taking care of the dishes when we're done." Kyou said.

"I'd be happy to help you with that." Melissa offered.

"Oh, it is late… I guess I should be going." Tomoyo started to get up. Kyou's announcement that Koumura had gone to bed made her realize that it was later in the day then she had thought.

"Nonsense, you should stay here tonight. The room next to Yuki is open." Tomoya offered.

"I really shouldn't…" Tomoyo tried to beg off but Kotomi also wanted her to stay.

"Please stay, Tomoyo-chan." Kotomi looked up at her friend. She wasn't pleading, but she earnestly wanted Tomoyo to stay this night. It was a special night for her and she wanted to be surrounded by her friends as much as possible.

"It does make logistical sense." Melissa put in, "If something should happen with the experiment, we are a lot closer to the park from here than you would be from your place.

"Hmpf." Tomoyo was ready to shrug off anything else but Melissa's comment had hit her in a vulnerable spot. Slowly putting her hands back on the table and sitting back down, she said, "Then… I will take you up on the offer. Thank you."

"Shall we go around the table?" Kyou asked brightly. She was eager to talk about the field trip she was arranging for her class to come and watch the next experiment, but she didn't want to come out with something big like that and make everyone else feel like their contributions were less significant. "Kotomi-chan, why don't you go first?"

"Are you sure?" Kotomi asked Kyou. Her social skills were getting a little better and she could tell that Kyou was very excited about something.

"Of course!" Kyou cheered. "Tell us something interesting, but not too sciency."

"Oh, okay." Kotomi stood up from her chair as if she were back in school and addressed everyone as clearly as she could. She was happy with her news and she wanted all of her friends to be happy with her.

"I saw the doctor today and I am five weeks pregnant."

.

* * *

 **Notes**

 **New Komeito :** In Japanese politics of 2010, the New Komeito party was the loyal opposition to the party that was in control of the government. Within a few years later they would gain control back, along with with their coalition partner, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. They would also drop the "New" from their name. Given their Buddhist roots, their people-centered political platform supports a weaker central government, local government autonomy, and care for the environment.

 **Hideyo:** A 1,000 Yen note features the portrait of Hideyo Noguchi.

 **Ichiyo:** A 5,000 Yen note features the portrait of Ichiyō Higuchi.

 **Fukuzawa:** A 10,000 Yen note features the portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi.


	16. Chapter 16 - Nagase vs Rice

**Wednesday evening, September 22 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

"I saw the doctor today and I am five weeks pregnant." Kotomi told everyone at the table.

Kyou was having a flashback to that time on the airplane when Kotomi blurted out that she was pregnant when Kyou had asked her to talk about something interesting – something to get her mind off of her fear of flying. _I_ _really_ _need to stop asking Kotomi to talk about_ _something interesting._

"WHAAAAAT?" the room reacted.

A startled Kotomi hadn't been ready for such a response and immediately moved to hide behind Tomoya. "Why… why are you upset?" she meekly asked.

"They're not upset, Kotomi-chan. They're just very… surprised." Tomoya chuckled. Around the table, most everyone looked stunned beyond words, except Yuki. His cousin was out of her chair and bouncing up and down on her toes in excitement.

"Yay, I'm gonna have another niece or nephew!" she squealed.

"Technically, wouldn't Tomoya's children be your cousins? They would be… second cousins or first cousins – once removed… or something like that." Melissa tried to figure it out.

"No! I get to be Aunt Yuki!" the tall girl pouted.

"Why is that so important?" Tomoyo asked.

"She's always wished she had been Tomoya's little sister." Kyou said.

"Really?" Tomoya asked. He was a bit surprised. He knew Yuki liked to spend a lot of time around them but he had never made that connection.

"You didn't know?" Kyou gazed at Tomoya in disbelief, "Sometimes it amazes me how clueless you can be."

"Please don't fight." Kotomi said to Kyou. She was still mostly behind Tomoya's chair and still a little worried that the others were upset with her.

"So, boy or girl?" Melissa decided to try and change the mood of the room for Kotomi's sake, "What are you hoping for this time?"

"Well, the last one was a girl, so to be fair I guess the next one will need to be a boy." Tomoya suggested.

"Um, no." Yuki objected, "You have two boys and one girl, so you need another girl to make things fair."

"Yeah!" Kyou agreed.

"You just want another niece that you can dress up and go shopping with." Tomoya's accusation was aimed at both Kyou and his cousin.

"Damn right I do!" Yuki admitted unabashedly with a victorious fist pump.

"I… I just want our baby to be healthy and happy." Kotomi said meekly.

Whether the baby was a boy or girl, no-one doubted that this child would be treasured and loved. Kotomi's wish was as simple as it was pure. And, though her words were softly spoken, they were strong enough to make everyone take a moment to pause and reflect.

Melissa knew that she would be back in America by the time Kotomi delivered her new baby, and that thought made her sad. She had been around the boys since they were six months old, and she had been with Kotomi when their daughter, Michiko-chan was born. Those days had been some of the most wonderful moments in her life. The love she saw both Kotomi and Kyou radiate for the children in their family was heartwarming enough to restore ones faith in humanity.

Having a baby around would create all new experiences for Yuki since she hadn't grown up with any younger siblings. But eight months seemed awfully far off and she wondered if she would still be here when the time came. At some point, she would need to ask Tomoya how long he wanted her to stick around. Although she sometimes felt like a freeloader, she was having the best time of her life being around Tomoya's family. Far from an idle freeloader, she was helping with the children, working at the school with Kyou, and even assisting Kotomi with her science project. For the moment, she was staying in one of the spare bedrooms in the same hallway with the children, but she knew she would have to make more permanent plans at some point.

Kyou had recovered from her shock and was wondering what it would mean for her. _An infant in the house_ _again…_ _It's been a while since we had any babies to take care of._ _Back then, w_ _e were taking care of_ _the boys and Michiko-chan, while still going to school._ _I_ _t was so hectic and yet… I miss those days of holding a baby in my arms and…_ Kyou's eyes suddenly opened wide as she looked down at her breasts and then at the cup of tea she had been drinking. Her breast size had never gone back down from the three years of breastfeeding that she had been through. Or perhaps it was due to the chemicals Kotomi had slipped into her diet to stimulate development and lactation. _No no no… she would never do that to me again! Tomoya was furious with her when he found out. She would never… I think she would never… She probably wouldn't…_

"Kotomi-chan." Tomoya said without turning to look at her.

"Tomoya-kun?" Kotomi still sounded a little worried while everyone was silently thinking about her surprise announcement and what it meant for them.

"Just to be clear, you will _not_ do anything to Kyou-chan… or anyone else – to make them start lactating this time."

Kyou and Melissa had known about Kotomi's _gift_ that she had given Kyou when the boys were born, but Tomoyo and Yuki had not heard of this. They had been about to laugh or call Tomoya a pervert for making such a sick joke when they saw the blush on Kyou's face.

"But…" Kotomi started to ask if, hypothetically, Kyou said she wanted to do it.

"No. Not even if she tells you it is okay." Tomoya insisted, "Knowing Kyou, she would probably do it out of guilt or some kind of perceived obligation. It wasn't fair that you did that to her last time and I don't want you to do it again."

"Yes… Tomoya-kun." Kotomi could tell that he was upset with her and wished that she could understand these strong feelings better.

"You… you did something to Kyou to make her lactate?" Tomoyo asked in shock.

"Why would you do something like that?" Yuki asked.

"I am sorry if what I did makes you feel uncomfortable. I was not trying to hurt Kyou-chan. I only wanted to help her." Kotomi could feel the accusatory pressure from her friends while she explained herself, "All of my research told me that there is nothing that creates such a strong bond with an infant as breastfeeding them. It is described as the most pure expression of love that a person can ever feel. I wanted Kyou-chan to feel such a wonderful thing."

A silence hung in the air for almost a minute while her friends digested what she said. They too had heard of the miracle bonding that happens between mother and child in those precious early years. Under normal circumstances, they would never have the opportunity to bring this up, but conversations with Kotomi often had little to do with _normalcy_. Finally, it was the powder blond who broke the silence to satisfy her curiosity.

"Was it" Tomoyo asked.

"Was it what?" Kotomi asked Tomoyo.

"Was it as wonderful as you had read?" Yuki replied for Tomoyo. She was wondering the same thing.

"Oh…" Kotomi's face had been tense as she had been under the critical gaze of her friends, whose mood had gone from accusatory to curious. The tension melted away as she remembered those wonderful moments looking into her babies eyes and feeling that connection… that incredible bond… Her face softened and a smile spread across her lips. Her eyes half closed in the memories of that pristine love and she could almost feel that bliss like an inner warmth spreading to every part of her body, "Yes. It was everything that my research said it would be, and more."

"Kyou… was it the same for you?" Tomoyo asked the blushing lavender haired girl.

"Yes. I didn't think it would be. But, when I held them in my arms and looked into those amazing eyes. It was like jumping into a deep pool of pure love. There is… nothing else like it." Kyou admitted.

"Are you… going to want to do it again?" Yuki asked Kyou. She did notice the hard stare she got from Tomoya for asking that question, but she had come to like and respect Kyou and if that was something her mentor wanted to do, Yuki would give her support.

"I… I don't know." Kyou admitted, "It's different now that we're home in Japan. I never had to explain it when we were living abroad, but now…"

"Friends... and family." Tomoyo said with understanding. She had talked with Kyou enough to know about the situation between Kyou and her father… and to some degree, Kyou's twin sister as well. Although her own family was much more dysfunctional than the Fujibayashi family, Tomoyo could sympathize with her lavender haired friend.

Everyone seemed to be over the initial shock of Kotomi's announcement, except the maid. Kyou could see the look of consternation on her face and remembered the conversation she had just had in the kitchen. The arrival of another child would herald an increase in the household workload… which was exactly what she had been talking about with the maid. Kyou decided instantly and nodded to the concerned woman as soon as their eyes met. As the maid backed out of the room into the kitchen, Kyou got everyone's attention.

"I've been thinking about this for a while and with Kotomi's announcement, I think we need to bring on another maid." Kyou said.

"I can stay in a hotel if it is causing a problem." Melissa offered.

"I… I can too." Yuki also offered, although she knew she couldn't afford it. If she had to leave the Ichinose House, she would probably have to go back to Hokkaido.

"No." Kyou hadn't realized the unintended meaning that her suggestion would have for some of the others, "I didn't mean anything like that. I don't want either of you to go."

"Kyou's right. But this is about the baby, not you two." Tomoya said in support, "Another child… especially a baby, is going to increase the workload more than a dozen house guests. Unless Kotomi or Kyou want to slow down their projects, I don't see any other way."

"I could help with the housework. I don't have anything important going on." Yuki offered.

"Oh no you don't!" Kyou's voice sounded like she was giving the younger girl a warning, "I've got plans for you. If Kotomi's right, I'm going to need another teacher at the beginning of the next school year. Do you think I was letting you tag along with me because I was bored?"

"That settles it then." Tomoya groaned, "Now we have to advertise and go through all those interviews."

"Our maid is calling her cousin now." Kyou said, "We can interview her as well – if you wish, but I'd like to let Koumura make the decision."

"No, you're right. We can leave it entirely up to Koumura." Tomoya said. He was relieved that Kyou was already taking care of this. The prospect of having to interview job applicants was something he didn't have the time for at the moment, and neither did Kotomi. For that matter, Kyou was far too busy with her school program to be involved in something like this. Kyou was right to have Koumura take care of this.

Kotomi nodded her assent as well.

.

Kyou was in the large bath. Surprisingly, everyone had agreed with her plan to bring on additional help before heading off to their rooms. There had been less resistance to her suggestion than she had anticipated and she was glad for that, but it had been a long day with too many annoyances and surprises. But now was her chance to let the stress of the day melt away into the hot water. She was leaning back with her eyes closed. Her body was completely at rest in the water and she wanted to calm her mind, but it seemed that there were a million little things all clamoring for her attention inside her head. They were all put on hold and her head snapped up when she felt the presence of a body pushing up against hers.

"Kotomi-chan?" Kyou asked when she saw the mass of purple hair in front of her face. Kotomi had floated into her so that she was now in Kyou's lap and between her floating arms.

"Kyou-chan." Kotomi said languidly as she reached out and pulled Kyou's arms in around her. She wasn't after a hug though and didn't stop moving until Kyou's hand's were on her tummy.

"I think it's a little early to feel the baby move." Kyou smirked.

"I know… but I just can't help being excited." Kotomi still held onto Kyou's arms, "We're going to have another baby, Kyou-chan… and this time I'm not scared at all."

"Because you've done it before?" Kyou asked.

"No… well that might be part of it. But mostly it's because I have you with me and you have become the perfect mother." Kotomi said as she snuggled into Kyou.

 _Perfect mother? Me? I'm not… I'm certainly not perfect and I'm not really even a mother._ Kyou thought as she remembered her sister's heated words.

… _they are Kotomi-chan's boys. They're also Tomoya-kun's boys, but they're not yours. Tomoya-kun is married to Kotomi-chan, not you. She is the one having his children, not you. Those children belong to them, not to you! Onee-chan, you have to remember that._

"I'm not really even a mother." Kyou absently repeated her thoughts.

"Oh, but what is a mother?" Kotomi asked in a sigh. She felt Kyou stiffen when she realized that she had said the words aloud. But Kotomi was ready for this discussion. Knowing that Kyou couldn't see her face, she didn't stop the smile from spreading as she leaned back into Kyou's comfortable body and soaked in the hot water. She was ready to re-educate her friend once again. Once more Kotomi would wield her intellect to save Kyou from her own self doubts and lingering connections to old ideals of morality and custom. "Do you remember studying Nagase Kiyoko?"

"I remember that she is called the Grandmother of Modern Poetry here in Japan." Kyou answered what seemed to be a non-sequitur question.

"She was a modern poet, but she wrote about the older concept of motherhood. She was raised by an intimidating and selfish mother that demanded obedience from her daughters. Do you remember her poem?" Kotomi asked.

"Um… no. I remember reading about how she was important to modern Japanese poetry but I don't know if I ever read any of her work." Kyou admitted.

"I am always aware of my mother, Ominous, threatening, A pain in the depths of my consciousness.  
My mother is like a shell, So easily broken.  
Yet the fact that I was born Bearing my mother's shadow Cannot be changed.  
She is like a cherished, bitter dream My nerves cannot forget Even after I am awake.  
She prevents all freedom of movement.  
If I move she quickly breaks And the splinters stab me."

Kotomi spoke the words pleasantly but the picture the words painted were anything but soothing. Hearing Kotomi's soft and sonorous voice recite the poem was like looking at a superb oil painting… of a traffic accident.

"That's… awful." Kyou reacted. Her own mother had expectations of her daughters, but she was nothing like that.

"I quite agree." Kotomi said as she continued her assault on the fears and doubts that ate away at Kyou's ego and self image. That may have been a perfect mother in the Taisho era, but it is far from what we think a mother should be now, isn't it?"

"Yes." Kyou still felt uncertain of where Kotomi was going with this, but she knew better than to think it was just _small talk_. Kotomi sounded very awkward and unsure of herself whenever she tried _small talk_ … and she sounded very sure of herself now.

"I wasn't thinking of her version of a mother when I said that I thought of you as a perfect mother. I was thinking more of the image of a mother from Helen Steiner Rice. Do you remember her?" Instead of waiting for an answer, Kotomi recited the poetry that would surely help her lavender haired friend.

"A Mother's love is something that no one can explain,  
It is made of deep devotion and of sacrifice and pain,  
It is endless and unselfish and enduring come what may  
For nothing can destroy it or take that love away  
It is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking,  
And it never fails or falters even though the heart is breaking.  
It believes beyond believing when the world around condemns,  
And it glows with all the beauty of the rarest, brightest gems."

Kotomi rolled over in the water so that she was facing Kyou's surprised face only centimeters away.

Purple eyes gazing into purple eyes.

Kyou could feel the closeness to Kotomi now, much more than she did when Kotomi was leaning back against her. She could feel the blush raising on her cheeks from being in such a position with her naked buxom friend. But, as expected, it didn't seem to phase Kotomi at all – in fact, the purple haired genius was smiling as if she was thinking of something wonderful. Knowing that she was the more flustered now only made Kyou blush more.

"That is the kind of mother you are, Kyou-chan. There is nothing in that poem about genetics or blood. It is about devotion, kindness, and love. This is the kind of mother that you are. This is why I can be certain that our children will grow up to be strong and confident. These are things I could never inspire. But you, Kyou-chan… you are the best." Kotomi tilted her head and smiled. She would be happy if this was all it took to convince Kyou, but she knew how stubborn Kyou was to accept a complement in a facet of her life that she thought was a weakness.

"I… I don't think I'm that good. I'm just doing what anyone should do when they are responsible for children." Kyou wanted to look away, but Kotomi was so close…

"Oh? But you do love them, don't you?" Kotomi asked.

"Y… yes, of course I love them!" Kyou suddenly had a horrible thought pass through her mind. _If something should happen and I would never get to see them again. Never have them fall asleep in my lap, or ask me for help with their homework, or come crying to me when they get a scrape or bruise… Never again get a hug from those small arms and little hands… No! I could never bear it._ The tears welled up in her eyes and her lip trembled before she gasped, "I do love them!

Checkmate.

"And they love you too. To them, there is no doubt in their minds that you love them. To them, they are absolutely certain that you are their… mother." Kotomi could see the change. Doubt and bitterness were washed away in happy tears. She had been certain of victory in this challenge, but she had not anticipated Kyou's physical needs. Kotomi gasped when Kyou leaned into her and hugged her tight enough that she was having trouble breathing.

"I do love them! I love them so much… I can't imagine life without them. I don't want to! Oh Kotomi-chan, I can't help it… I really can't. I love them so much!" Kyou wailed. She held onto Kotomi tightly and cried out her negative feelings while the positive emotions that were revealed by Kotomi's words, began to fill her up.

"Kyou-chan…" Kotomi squeaked pitifully while turning blue from Kyou's constricting hug, "Kotomi… can't breathe!"

.

 **Tuesday afternoon, September 21 – On the way to the Fujibayashi home (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"Everything seem the same to you?" Isamu asked after they got far enough down the road that they didn't have to be worried about being overheard.

"Whadayamean?" Iwao asked.

"Your here to do a job. Even when you're at lunch, ya gotta be observant. Ya gotta watch what's goin on around you and remember little details about what might make this place different from our univ… home."

"Ya, okay…" Iwao thought about everything that he had noticed since they had arrived in this world. "Let's see. The park wuddent nearly as nice as ours. It's kinda runned down. Da ramen place we ate at was about da same. Da prices were about da same too. Kou didn't know me."

"You saw Kyou-san in there?" Isamu almost shouted.

"No, I saw Kou in dere." Iwao chuckled at Isamu's confusion, "He works at da ramen place. I seen him a lot since we been trainin at da park."

"You knucklehead, I wouldn'ta thought you said _Kyou_ if you bothered to put a little more effort into your speech." Isamu grumbled while his jovial friend laughed. But the mistake made him wonder about something. Taking a right at the next side street he said, "Let's go this way."

"Why? Dat's outta da way if we're goin to da Fujibayashi place." Iwao asked but followed Isamu up the street anyway.

"Yeah it is. I just want to see if this place is like the last one." Isamu thought there might be a good chance of it. "I want to see if Kyou-chan works at the sporting goods store here too."

"Ooh, dis sounds interestin." Iwao grinned.

.

Walking in the other direction, Mikio and Takeshi were only a few streets away from the Okazaki house when they heard the sounds of a fight. Being the brawlers that they were, their first instinct was to drop their toolboxes and join the fight… but they had been trained well. _Avoid confrontations and avoid situations where the police might show up._ Tomoyo had drilled that into them. Reluctantly, they were about to back down the street and take another route when they heard a voice they recognized.

"Izzat all you got? Cmon. Come at me you cowards. I'll take you all on!" the voice sounded strained and forced. It was clear that the person behind the voice was badly hurt and exhausted. It was also clear that it was Mikio.

"Don't be stupid, Mikio. You're the one that's gonna die here today." another voice responded.

"What do we do?" Takeshi whispered to the Mikio next to him.

"I don't wanna run off and let the other me die." Mikio answered, but…

"Hey, you got a pipe wrench in your tool box?" Takeshi asked.

"Yeah…" Mikio smiled and seemed to have the same idea as Takeshi. They both pulled out their pipe wrenches and hid their tool boxes up against the side of the fence they were behind. Then, pipe wrenches in hand, they stepped out from the protection of the fence and saw what the other Mikio was facing.

There were several bodies in the street. The other Mikio was still standing, but just barely. He was facing off against four others that didn't look like they were in a lot better shape. But still, at four against one it was obvious what the outcome would be.

"Well, lookit what we have here." Mikio said in a loud voice as he started walking up on the fight scene from behind his parallel self, "Looks like some bad boys are pickin on my cousin, Mikio."

"We can't have that." Takeshi agreed with a low sneer. He meant to intimidate the other gang members, but their reaction was completely out of proportion to his threat.

"Takeshi!" one of them screamed hysterically as he backed away from the fight. His face was drained and his eyes were open wide in panic. "That… that's not possible!"

"Why ain't it possible?" Takeshi rushed forward and watched all four of the opponents fall back in terror.

"Because… you're dead!" another one whimpered.

"That's right. I am dead. But I made a deal with a Shinigami, so I'm back! And I'm back… for revenge!" Takeshi shrieked like he was going out of his mind and charged the four gang members that could still move.

The four gang members turned and fled, but one of them tripped on one of the already fallen bodies and fell. His comrades did not stop to help and left him to his unfortunate fate as Takeshi descended on him. Takeshi's pipe wrench impacted him in the small of his back and it felt like he was broken in two with the blow… but he was still conscious. Still terrified, he tried to crawl away until he saw the pair of workman boots step in front of his outstretched hand. Terrified to look up, he did so anyway, and looked into the insane eyes of a dead man.

"No… please don't…" he begged.

"You felt the blow of my wrench?" Takeshi said as cruelly as he could, "That means your body is still alive, but I've already sent your soul to hell. There's no escaping your fate now kid. As soon as your body dies, you'll be spending the rest of eternity in hell as a plaything of a thousand demons."

"No…" he pleaded.

"I don't care one way or the other, but if I was you… I'd get the hell away from here and live a peaceful life. Live as long as you can… because your afterlife is already doomed." Takeshi threw back his head and laughed like he had lost all sanity and reason, until the terrified man passed out from shock.

Both Mikios were stunned. The one in workman's clothes was standing over the injured version of himself and watching Takeshi's theatrics. _Whoa! When the hell did he learn to do something like that?_ When the thug on the ground collapsed, Takeshi's insane laughter stopped and he made his way back to the two Mikios.

"Are… are you gonna take my soul too?" the injured Mikio asked from where he knelt in front of workman Mikio. Unlike the others, he seemed more defeated than afraid.

"You think I'm dead too, huh?" Takeshi asked with a twisted smile.

"I know you're dead. I was with you when you died. And…" he swiveled his head and looked up at the healthy version of himself wearing workman's clothes and carrying another one of those spirit-world pipe wrenches, "I know I ain't got no cousin."

"If he ain't your cousin, then who do you think he is?" Takeshi asked.

"He… he's the Shinigami you made a deal with. He just looks like me… I didn't know they could do that." The injured Mikio started to wobble and looked like he might pass out soon.

"Whoa! No passing out yet Mikio!" Takeshi slapped the kneeling man several times until he started to look like the fire was coming back into his eyes. "You can rest later. We got to get outta here."

Mikio went back for the tool boxes before he and Takeshi got the injured man to his feet and helped him to stumble down the road. He was nervous and scared, but he did his best. He had never been helped by a dead man and a Shinigami before, so he wasn't sure what was to become of him. But for sure, he didn't want them to send his soul to hell while he was still alive.

.

"Welcome!" a voice called from the back of the store… but it clearly wasn't Kyou-san's.

Iwao looked at Isamu and could see the disappointment on his face. He was wondering if Isamu might just turn around and walk out of the store. But Iwao had an idea.

"Uh, scuuze me but, do ya got a Fujibayashi Kyou workin here?" Iwao asked as nicely as he could.

"Who's askin?" a tall slender man asked as he came to the front of the store. His name tag indicated he was the store manager and he seemed more suspicious the closer he got to the two workmen.

"My name's I… Isao. I know I looks bad, but my kid sister iddnt like me at-all. She's pretty an real smart, an she went ta school wit Kyou-san. Anyhow… she askd me ta drop in an say hi ta her old friend from high school while I was in this town." Iwao said.

"Okay…" the man seemed to be satisfied by that story and looked up at the clock on the wall before continuing, "At this time of day, she'll either be at the grocery store around the corner, or at her home. Do you know where that is?"

"Uh… well, mah sis knowd where her parents house was, but it's been a while an if she mooved…" Iwao kept up the long-time-no-see story.

"No, she hasn't moved." the man had a strange grin as if he was reacting to a private joke, "She's still living at her parent's house."

"Okay, thanks for yer help." Iwao smiled and turned to leave.

"Just a second…" Isamu had an idea, "do you have any of those dango thermoses left?"

"Uh… sure. I think I have two or three. They're on clearance sale."

"Great! I'll take all three of them." Isamu told the store manager.

.

"What's up with the toy thermoses?" Iwao asked as they left the store, "We gots the good stuff on this trip."

"And hopefully, it will all be there when we get back to the park. But I have another plan for these things." Isamu grinned.

.

Isamu and Iwao were just walking into the store when they spied Kyou in the checkout lane.

"Fujibayashi Kyou!" Isamu called out to the lavender haired girl as he and Iwao approached her. He was ready to launch into his story of how they knew her, when both of them were stunned.

As Kyou turned to see who was calling her name, Isamu and Iwao could see that the Fujibayashi Kyou in this universe was very very pregnant. Both of them could only gape at the surprisingly big belly before them.

"Do I know you?" Kyou asked suspiciously. Hers was not a weak memory and she didn't ever remember running into these guys before.

"Ah, my sister went to school with you. She said to look you up and say hi for her." Isamu felt clumsy even though it was the story he had come up with.

"Hmm?" But how did you recognize me?" Kyou asked them.

"Are you kiddin?" Iwao chuckled, "There ain't that many girls in the world with long lavender hair and purple eyes."

"Fair enough… so who is this sister of yours?" Kyou still seemed suspicious, but not as much as before.

"Miyazawa Yukine. She was a year behind you." Isamu offered.

"I don't remember her." Kyou's suspicion grew again.

"Aww, that's not very nice. She said you were a class representative and she really admired you." Isamu could see that the flattery had no effect so he tried once more, "She also knew Furukawa Nagisa and told us to give her a present." He pulled one of the dango thermoses out of the bag and showed it to Kyou.

"Well, I suppose that proves you know Nagisa at least." Kyou laughed and also seemed to have dropped her suspicions. "Please don't tell Miyazawa-san that I didn't remember her. I don't know why I can't place her… I usually have a pretty good memory for people."

"Oh? Do you remember Kotomi Ichinose?" Isamu added, "She was another person Yukine-chan said she remembered from school."

"I heard the name but I didn't think anyone ever met her. She was some kind of genius but she never talked to anyone. The last I heard of her was that she left to study abroad and never came back. But, that could just be a rumor. Why, did Miyazawa-san know her too?" Kyou sounded intrigued.

"Yeah, well… they at least talked once or twice. But if she's out of the country, I guess we can't stop and say hello." Isamu was trying to keep the conversation light and as un-suspicious as possible, but he was dying to ask her what relationship she was in and about the obvious pregnancy.

"Let me help you wit dem bags." Iwao said softly as they got to the store's exit.

"Thanks, but I'm taking this taxi." Kyou indicated the cab that was parked and waiting for her in front of the store. "It's too difficult to walk all the way home in this condition."

"I guess so. When are you due? Uh… if you don't mind my asking." Isamu finally found a way to get to the difficult questions.

"Two more weeks… I hope. The first one was a week late though, so I don't know." Kyou sighed

Isamu helped her into the back seat of the cab and Iwao got her groceries into the seat next to her. They both noticed that she was happy, even if she was uncomfortable in her late term condition.

"Oh, if you want to give your sister a message for me," Kyou said through the window before the taxi pulled away, "tell her that I am now Okazaki Kyou."

"So… she married Tomoya-san in this universe." Isamu said softly as he and Iwao waved to the departing taxi.

"Yup." Iwao agreed.

 _Bing. Bing. Bong. Bing. Bing. Bong._

"Whoa, what the hell is that?" Isamu reacted to the sound in his left ear before realizing that it was the communicator built into his hat.

"Boss, can you hear me?" Takeshi called to him. His voice sounded strained as if he was carrying a great weight.

"Yeah, I can hear you. And don't call me boss." Isamu grumbled.

"Uh… we need to head back to the park for the first-aid gear. Mikio is hurt." Takeshi said.

"How bad is it?" Isamu tried to keep his voice under control. He was concerned for Mikio and wondered what kind of trouble the two of them had got into.

"He can barely walk. Can you guys handle goin to the Ichinose house without us?" Takeshi grunted.

"We'll meet you at the park. We found Kyou. She told us that the Kotomi from this universe left to study abroad and never came back, so we don't need to go there now." Isamu picked up the pace but tried not to look too conspicuous as the two workers walked quickly down the street.

.

Isamu checked his watch for the local time. He hadn't ever worn an old style wind-up watch before but they were suddenly useful now. As soon as they found out what the correct time was, in the world they were visiting, they could set the time on a mechanical watch. With the handy and unobtrusive device performing its singular purpose, they could rely on it for the rest of the time they were there - in this case, they had set their watches after Iwao had looked at the abandoned cell phone in the car near the park. Carrying their cell phones was not allowed and anything electronic that they brought with them from their world would have to stay in the bottoms of their tool boxes. So, for the exploration teams, there was a revival of the traditional mechanical wristwatch. And right now, that useful timepiece on his arm was telling him that it was about time for all the schools to start letting out.

While it was true that a lot of middle-school and high-school students would still be up at their schools for a while with their various club activities, there would be enough kids in the area that treating a wound in the park would probably get noticed. Isamu tried to think of all their options but there weren't many that could work in the time they had. They had to go back to the park to get their supplies, but then there wouldn't be enough time to get out to a more remote area. He hated to trade on the pleasantries from earlier that morning, but the Furukawa Bakery looked like the only real option. He was about to use his hat to call Takeshi when he saw an odd sight. Up the street and coming toward him, he could see Mikio carrying both the tool boxes and Takeshi carrying another Mikio.

 _Another Mikio? What the hell?_ Suddenly it occurred to him that the Mikio that Takeshi was carrying wasn't wearing the work clothes so he could only be… _this world's Mikio._ "Baka!"

"Boss, I can explain!" Mikio said hurriedly.

"Shut up! Don't call me boss, and listen..." Isamu had already made up his mind what they would need to do. The fact that the injured Mikio was this world's Mikio didn't significantly change anything. Turning to Takeshi who was still carrying the injured Mikio, he asked, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay." Takeshi answered but it was clear to see that he was reaching the end of his endurance.

"Give me your tool boxes." he said to Mikio and Iwao, "You two go into the park and get all our stuff. Bring it to the bakery." As soon as they handed over their boxes and ran into the park, Isamu led the way toward the bakery entrance and told Takeshi, "Follow me."

 _Ding ding!_

"Welcome!" Sanae called out from the residence entrance. It was a little early for the after school rush and she wondered who might be calling at this time. When she stepped into the bakery, she was met with a frightening sight. The man that had come to visit earlier in the day was there with another worker who was carrying an injured man across his shoulders. "Oh my! Should I call an ambulance?"

"No… please don't do that Sanae-san!" Isamu appreciated her desire to help, but having the authorities show up now would not be a good idea. "We have first-aid supplies but we need a place to treat him. Could we please borrow your living room for a while?" Isamu bowed low since he knew he was asking much of someone he had just met.

"Of course! I can show you the way." she started to move back toward the entrance to the house but Isamu and Takeshi were already in motion.

"That's okay, we know the way." Isamu said as he led Takeshi to the living room next to the large family bath. The inside of this other-world Furukawa house was so familiar it felt a little creepy. They even had the same pictures of Nagisa and Ryou on the walls. Despite the crisis mode he was in, Isamu remembered to tell his hostess, "Two more friends will be coming in with the supplies, Sanae-san."

"Okay!" Sanae answered and looked out the windows of the bakery just in time to see two more workmen coming out of the park and carrying large packs. _Oh my, do workers have to carry that much around with them? Or… is this something shady. I wish Akio was here. Maybe… maybe I should call the police?"_

.

* * *

 **Credits, Definitions, and Notes**

"Mother" by Nagase Kiyoko. The full poem is used in this chapter.

"A Mother's Love" by Helen Steiner Rice. A portion of the full poem is used in this chapter.

Shinigami \- _death spirits_ in Japanese culture and religion.

Relationships: Tomoya and Yuki are first cousins, so Shuichi, Shuji, and Michiko would be Yuki's first cousin - once removed. However, it is not uncommon for people in those relationships to refer to each other as Aunt/Uncle and Niece/Nephew.


	17. Chapter 17 - Sayonara Sanae

**Thursday morning, September 23 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Koumura and Fuko watched over the younger children as they frolicked on the smaller playground equipment in the 'little kids' section of the park. Koumura was seated at a nearby picnic table and drinking some tea from a thermos he had brought along. Fuko stood nearby and anxiously watched the children with the old man. Both of them enjoyed watching the little ones, but Fuko would rather join in the play than responsibly watch from a distance. Unfortunately for the short ikiryo, the playground equipment in this section was too small, even for her. Instead, she tried to console herself with the thought that she was behaving more like an adult by watching over them, encouraging them, and gently pushing them on the swings.

 _If only behaving like an adult was more fun!_ Fuko looked enviously at the little slide that the children would slip down, then run back around to ride it again. Being close to each other in age, the three of them played well together. Michiko and Yoichi were always close, and the younger Yasuo would follow them wherever they went. He wasn't excluded, but it was clear that there was a special affinity between the brown haired Sunohara boy and the purple haired Okazaki girl.

"Fuko… I mean… _I_ feel sorry for Yasuo-kun." Fuko told the kind old man next to her.

"Oh? Why is that?" Koumura asked.

"He'll be all alone soon." Fuko said wistfully as she thought about the next school year that would be starting in April. "If only he was born a few months earlier. Next spring, Michiko-chan and Yoichi-kun will be starting Kindergarten, but Yasuo-kun's birthday is in May." Fuko said wistfully.

"I see… so he won't be starting Kindergarten until the following year." Koumura followed the ikiryo's thoughts.

"Yeah… and he'll always be the youngest one… _the littlest one_ … to all the others." that thought particularly bothered Fuko since she felt that she was always teased because she was so small.

Koumura took his eyes away from the children and looked at Fuko. He could see her sorrow easily. The short ikiryo was not one to hide her feelings and Koumura was a fairly observant fellow. He slowly took a sip of his tea and decided to give the concerned girl some good news.

"He won't be the youngest or littlest for long." Koumura smiled as he turned his gaze back to the children.

"Huh?" Fuko looked up at the senior.

"Kotomi is pregnant again." Koumura revealed.

"What?" Fuko's initial shock quickly turned to excitement.

"Soon enough, Yasuo-kun will be five years older than the youngest and littlest of the children." Koumura smiled at Fuko and could see the happiness blooming on her face.

.

 **Thursday afternoon, September 23 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

"I don't think my daughter needs to be in this program any longer." the mother of the third grade girl said with a confrontational tone.

"You're probably right." Yuki agreed with her. Fortunately, a few of the other parents had warned her about this woman. She was the kind that insisted on _special treatment_. The other parents told her that this would be coming: the woman was repetitive and predictable. But Yuki had a lifetime of dealing with a woman who thought she deserved _special treatment_ and had seen just how her grandmother had handled _that woman_. "To be honest, it would be a relief if you pulled her out of the program and put her in a normal class."

"What?" the shocked mother gaped. This had not been the response she had expected at all.

"She has caught back up in the subjects she was not doing well in, so there is no reason to keep her in our class any longer, I suppose." Yuki said.

"But… so… you don't want her in your class anymore?" the mother was starting to sound angry.

"Oh no! It's not that we don't want her." Yuki laughed and cleared up the misunderstanding, "We really enjoy having your daughter in this class. She is a joy to have around. It's just that we have no reason to keep her in here if her parents want her to go back to a normal class."

"But, you said it would be a relief if I pulled her out?" the confused woman asked.

"Well yes. The program has been very successful and we now have three or four kids wanting to get in for each desk in the classroom." Yuki explained to the mother, "So, if you pulled your daughter out, we could make some other parents very happy. As a matter of fact, I have the transfer forms right here…"

"What? But I…" the mother was starting to backpedal, but the insistent assistant wasn't allowing her to back down.

"I kind-of got the feeling you didn't want her in the program anyway. You never show up for the volunteer days and you haven't signed the permission slip for the October learning experience. Putting her back in a normal class would make it easier for everyone, I guess." Yuki suggested.

"I… I just think it's strange to let a bunch of elementary school students camp out in a city park overnight."

"Yes, of course. Evidently, all the other parents weren't as concerned as you though. Your daughter is the only one that hasn't turned in her permission slip. But that won't be a concern after you withdraw her from the class, right?" Yuki said with a helpful tone as she continued to dangle the withdrawal forms in front of the panicking mother.

"All… all the others approved?" the woman couldn't believe that she was the only one that thought it was a strange thing to do with such young children.

"I'm sure they all had concerns, but after reading the detailed explanation on the back of the form, I guess it satisfied their curiosity. Evidently, the explanations we provided did not address all of your concerns though. But I don't blame you, it would be an unreal expectation that the same explanation would satisfy all of the parents, right?" Yuki said.

"Um… yeah." the mother couldn't admit now that she hadn't bothered to read everything on the permission slip that had been sent to her. In fact, she hadn't looked at the back of the form before crumpling it up and throwing it away in front of her daughter. "I… I changed my mind. I want my daughter to stay in this class and I want her to go on this field trip. Please provide me with another permission slip."

"I don't know…" Yuki seemed to be in thought as she treated the woman's demand as a request that needed consideration.

"What do you mean? Didn't you say that she was a joy to have in your class?" the mother asked.

"She is, but the success of this program relies not only on the students but on their parents as well. You don't sound like you're satisfied with the way the program is run and you don't attend your volunteer days, so perhaps our program is not the right fit." Yuki said. She had carefully chosen her words to make sure that any hesitation was not due to the woman's daughter. The responsibility was solely on the mother of the student whose continued participation was now being decided.

"No! It's not like that. I am quite satisfied with the program! I…" she could see, from Yuki's knowing expression, that the gig was up. She had been found out. Her antics wouldn't work here and worse… they would get her child in trouble as well. "I'm sorry! I know I am a selfish person, but…"

"That's enough." Yuki pulled the woman close as if to confide something private to her and whispered into her ear, "You will get help for your attitude issues. You will perform your volunteer duties. You will report to me about your progress with your mental health counselor. Yesterday, your daughter cried at school because of you. She told everyone how you wadded up her permission slip and told her that she couldn't participate with the rest of the class. At that moment, I wanted to find you and beat you until you couldn't talk any more. This is your one chance to make this right. If you want your daughter to stay in this class and you don't want me to level an accusation of child abuse, you will do what I tell you to do - and you will do it when I tell you. Do you understand me?"

"Y… yes… sensei." the scared woman replied to the menacing girl.

"And finally," Yuki backed up so that she was now looking directly into the eyes of the now terrified woman, "Don't screw with me. I'm from Hokkaido."

"No… I mean yes! I will do as you say, sensei!" the woman's knees were now shaking terribly. She had always heard that people from Hokkaido were very rugged and courageous, but she hadn't heard that they could be so fearsome.

"What's going on here?" Kyou asked as she approached Yuki and the trembling mother.

"Everything is fine here." Yuki smiled at her mentor, "She has decided to approve her daughter's permission slip, so it looks like we will have the whole class on the field trip after all."

"That's wonderful! Thank you so much." Kyou wanted to chat more but another arriving parent distracted her, and it looked like Yuki had this parent well in hand.

"You… won't tell her?" the woman thought for a moment that she might have some leverage on this tall scary teacher.

"Are you kidding? I only wanted to beat you up. If you ever make her mad, you'll think you've met a real life yōkai." Yuki warned the woman.

"Is she safe to have around the children?" the mother worried about someone that could terrify this giantess from Hokkaido.

"They couldn't be safer anywhere else in the world. Anyone that would want to do them harm would have to make it through me, and then her. They might make it through me if they are tough enough. But Kyou-sensei will send them straight to hell." Yuki answered with evident admiration in her voice.

"I see. Well, here is the permission slip with my stamp. I need to collect my daughter and go now." the woman couldn't wait to get away from this place. She had just learned, in a most frightening way, that the two teachers in this program were not to be trifled with. They were strong willed and resistant to her usual tactics of demands and criticisms. In short, they were not the kind of people that she preferred to deal with. _But then… that also makes them the perfect role models for my daughter… if I want her to grow up to be strong like them. And I do. My mother was like I am now and I hated her for it, but I nevertheless became like her. And now I hate her for making me like this and I hate myself for being like this. I must break the chain. I do not want my daughter to also be like my mother… like me..._

.

 **Tuesday afternoon, September 21 – Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"Welcome!" Sanae called out from the residence entrance. It was a little early for the after school rush and she wondered who might be calling at this time. When she stepped into the bakery, she was met with a frightening sight. The man that had come to visit earlier in the day was there with another worker who was carrying an injured man across his shoulders. "Oh my! Should I call an ambulance?"

"No… please don't do that Sanae-san!" Isamu appreciated her desire to help, but having the authorities show up now would not be a good idea. "We have first-aid supplies but we need a place to treat him. Could we please borrow your living room for a while?" Isamu bowed low since he knew he was asking much of someone he had just met.

"Of course! I can show you the way." she started to move back toward the entrance to the house but Isamu and Takeshi were already in motion.

"That's okay, we know the way." Isamu said as he led Takeshi to the living room next to the large family bath. The inside of this other-world Furukawa house was so familiar it felt a little creepy. They even had the same pictures of Nagisa and Ryou on the walls. Despite the crisis mode he was in, Isamu remembered to tell his hostess, "Two more friends will be coming in with the supplies, Sanae-san."

"Okay!" Sanae answered and looked out the windows of the bakery just in time to see two more workmen coming out of the park and carrying large packs. _Oh my, do workers have to carry that much around with them? Or… is this something shady. I wish Akio was here. Maybe… maybe I should call the police?_ _Wait… they know the way? Why do they know the way around inside my house?_ _"_

 _Ding ding!_

"They're in the living room." Sanae said as soon as the two men were in the door.

"Thank you, Sanae-san." both men bowed slightly despite the heavy looking packs they were carrying, then headed off into her home through the residence entrance from the bakery.

 _It's true, they do know their way around inside my house. But why? I don't remember meeting any of them before… except for the one I just met this morning. But he ran off as soon as I gave him the money –_ _he never went inside the house_ _._ She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and moved her fingers to flip it open. It was still the old kind - not a smart-phone like everyone else seemed to be using now days, but it served her well. Her fingers knew where to find the keys to call emergency services without even having to look at it.

"Please don do dat, Sanae-sama." Iwao asked softly from the doorway.

"Oh!" Sanae jumped a bit in surprise. She hadn't heard him come back.

"I know you's worried, but trust me. We don mean you or anybody else no harm." He raised his right arm and showed her a picture he had taken from the hallway, "Dis is Nagisa-chan and Ryou-chan. Dey is very important to us. We all loves dem very much. An we know dey loves each other wit all dere hearts."

"That's nice to hear." Sanae was glad to hear that their girls were beloved, but it bothered her a little that he had plucked the picture from her wall and she wondered why her girls would know such rough looking men.

"I know its hard ta bllieve… dat Nagisa-chan and Ryou-chan bein so sweet would know a buncha gorillas like us, but we do. We brought Nagisa-chan a gift." Iwao held up his other hand and showed the three dango thermoses that Isamu had bought earlier.

"Ah!" Sanae gasped. It wasn't a closely held secret that her daughter was still a fan of those silly dangos, but it wasn't advertised either. Her hand that held the cell phone dropped a bit.

"An dere's somtin else. When Isamu finishes treatin Mikio's wounds, he can tell ya somtin important about Nagisa-chan." Iwao offered.

"What… what about my daughter?" her hand with the cell phone came back up. They could make all kinds of promises, but threatening her daughter was not going to win them any points with her.

"Sanae-sama, it's not a bad thing. Isamu knows why your daughter gots that weird sickness. He's purdy sure it will never happen again. Izzat somtin ya wanna hear about?" Iwao tried to say it all as friendly as he could, but that cell phone in her hand was making him very nervous.

"He thinks… it will never happen again?" Sanae forgot about suspicion amidst the flame of hope that Iwao's clumsy words kindled.

"Dat's right. He can tell ya all about it when he's done fixin up Mikio." Iwao was glad now. The phone was all but dropped to the floor and she was no longer looking so suspicious.

"Is… is there anything I can do to help? I know a bit about first aid too!" Sanae offered. She now wanted to get this Mikio person healthy as quickly as possible so that she could hear what Isamu had to say about her darling Nagisa.

"Sure, I can watch the store for ya ifn ya wanna help Isamu." Iwao then pulled a list out of his pocket and asked, "Can I borrow yer phone? I gots a few people I was supposed ta say hi to, while I wuz here."

"Oh, sure." Sanae handed over her cell phone, hung up her baker's apron, and ran into the house.

Iwao was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Not only did he dissuade Sanae-sama from calling the police, he now had her phone in his hand. At first he had been worried about telling her so much. But he remembered that the first team had told Kyou and Nagisa from that parallel world about as much, so it shouldn't matter. Looking at the first name on his list, he dialed the number. After a few rings, he heard an answer.

"Hello, is dis da Sunohara residence? It is? Dat's good, I'm tryin ta get in touch wit Youhei or Mei..."

.

Hours later the bakery was closed, the local Mikio's arm was splinted, ice packs had been applied to broken ribs, and he was asleep from the powerful painkillers Isamu had given him. He was unconscious when Isamu had first seen him so it wasn't a huge change from then, but instead of groaning in pain, he was now softly snoring. Takeshi had made some tea and the four men were all sitting around the dining table with Sanae as if they were frequent guests. Sanae watched all of this for a while until her curiosity finally got the better of her.

"Okay boys, it's time for that talk that Iwao promised me." Sanae said.

"Talk?" Isamu looked at Iwao who looked uncomfortable but didn't shy away from Isamu's stare.

"Boss, she was about ta call da cops. Tink about it… she had good reason ta call em too. I knowed I needed ta stop her but dere ain't no way ahm gonna hit Sanae-sama." Iwao said defiantly.

"Don't. Call. Me. Boss!" Isamu ground his teeth for a moment. In truth he couldn't fault Iwao. He had been confronted with a bad situation and he did the best he could under the circumstances.

"So… are you boys part of a military unit?" Sanae asked them. She had already figured out from the similar – but not exactly the same – clothes they were all wearing that they were too well equipped for a local gang. _T_ _hey could be part of a larger syndicate. But what interest would a larger syndicate have in this little town?_

"No… believe it or not, we're part of a science project." Isamu laughed a little at the thought of them being in a military unit. "So, what kind of questions would you like me to answer?"

"Just a few things. Why do you all seem to know me but I don't remember any of you? Why do you know the inside of my house so well when I don't remember you being here before? Why is it that one of you looks exactly like the guy sleeping on the floor and you are both named Mikio? Why do you know my daughter and Ryou?" What do you know about my daughter's strange illness and why do you think that it will never happen again?" Sanae ticked off five fingers as she asked the questions.

Isamu reached over, took Sanae's other hand and put up one finger. Then he said, "That last one was a double."

"So it was." Sanae agreed with a smile. She had initially been scared when he was reaching for her, but was calm again now.

"I'll make you a deal." Isamu told her, "Iwao and Mikio are pretty good in the kitchen. If you let them loose in there to make us all some dinner, I'll tell you everything you want to know. The story I have to tell is pretty long, but it is the truth."

"Okay." Sanae gave her assent. The two men immediately got up and lumbered into the kitchen.

"Boss, I'm better at cooking than Mikio." Takeshi said.

"You need to rest. I'm worried that you mighta hurt something carrying Mikio all the way here. And don't call me boss." Isamu told the tough looking guy still at the table with Isamu and Sanae.

"Well, if that's the way it is, I'm gonna lie down on the floor for a bit." Takeshi walked into the living room and lay down a few meters away from where the injured Mikio was sleeping.

Sanae was about to tell him to get on with his story when he reached over to his tool box and opened it up. She watched as he pulled out a wrench, a hammer, and a pair of pliers.

"Do you know what these are?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm not stupid." Sanae was worried that after all his promises, he was about to come up with a lie after all. She watched as he removed the top tray of his tool box and pulled out four wondrous devices and set them on the table in front of her.

"Do you know what these are?" He asked again.

"That one looks like a radio, but the rest…" Sanae had to admit that she had never seen anything like these devices before. Then again, she wasn't a mechanic or an electrician.

"Before I tell you anything, let me warn you that you are not going to believe me. So, before I even get started, I'll tell you that tonight, between eleven and midnight, I will prove everything in center field of the baseball diamond in the park across the street."

"Okay… let's hear it." Sanae wondered how he could prove something outlandish in the middle of the night – and all alone in a park. She thought it much more likely that it would be a trick. But she would hear his story.

.

 **Thursday evening, September 23rd - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

The sun had gone down but the lights were on in the baseball diamond and in the pergola's around the park. The four trucks were in their places and dozens of technicians were running checks on their equipment. With Tomoya at her side to keep her from walking into lamp posts, trees, and other people, Kotomi was going over the latest data on her heavy looking tablet as she walked through the park. She didn't notice the stares from the people she passed on her way to the pergola that had been set up for the exploration team. As soon as she was seated at a bench, she swiveled the screen up and began typing on a keyboard that hadn't been there a moment before.

"I thought that was a clunky old tablet?" a member of the recovery team commented when the tablet suddenly turned into a laptop.

"It's both really." Melissa told the curious grad student, "It's ruggedized to military specs. Resistant to electrical and physical shock, you could blast it with a fire-hose or drive a truck over it and it would still work."

"You Americans and your _military spec_ stuff." the grad student said dismissively.

"It's a Japanese product." Melissa smirked.

"Seriously?" the student looked surprised.

"Unless you think Panasonic is a foreign company, I'm pretty sure it's Japanese." Melissa said.

"Why would someone do that to a laptop?" the grad student sounded incredulous.

"Have you _met_ Kotomi?" Melissa answered the question with a question, and a smirk.

"Ah… good point." the grad student winced. He recalled the most notorious Kotomi story since he had begun working on this project. She had challenged the tech team in charge of portable instrumentation to remake one of the devices that the explorers would be carrying in their tool boxes. She wanted the device to be remade smaller and more rugged. When they brought her the finished product, she held it out at arms length and dropped it onto the street. With the glass sphere shattered into a thousand pieces, she turned to the shocked team members and simply commented that it needed to be more rugged.

"Did you need something?" Melissa asked the lab coated student.

"Um… yes. I'm with the recovery team and we have our new stuff set up. I just wanted to let Kotomi-hakase know... in case she wanted to inspect it."

"Hmm..." Melissa took a look over at where Tomoya and Kotomi were seated and could see that Kotomi was deep in concentration with whatever she had on her screen. Then she looked over at the table where Hiroki, Kenta, Ryota, and Takeo were waiting for Tomoyo to arrive. "Hey, Tomoya-kun. Tell Tomoyo that I took her boys to go check out the recovery team's new toys."

"Okay." Tomoya acknowledged the big red-head but wished she was a little less brusque with the way she dealt with people.

"Come on guys, this might be interesting." she smiled at the table with the four other members of Tomoyo's exploration team.

.

As they followed the intern over to where the recovery team was set up, they noticed that the police were already there and some workers were starting to rope off the area where the current team would be returning. Apparently the news had got out about the time of the return and there were already several people sitting in the bleachers watching the show… even if there wasn't all that much to watch at the moment.

Her eyes caught four short green cylinders off to the side that grabbed her interest while the intern showed her the latest emergency medical gear that had been assembled and readied.

"That's great, but do you know how to use all this stuff?" Melissa wondered after she was shown a defibrillator.

"Most of this stuff is automated but we do have two Emergency Medical Technicians." the intern told her.

"Two EMT's huh…" Melissa thought about it and even if the gear did have a high degree of automation, she would prefer to have more medical professionals here.

"Uh… Melissa-hakase? Ryou-chan knows medical stuff." Hiroki suggested.

"Oh yes, I had forgotten about that. Can you get her here?" Melissa asked the scary, gorilla-like man that another world's Nagisa had dubbed – a teddy bear.

"Yeah." Hiroki wasn't one for long speeches so he answered simply, and turned to run off toward the nearby Furukawa Bakery where both Ryou and Nagisa would probably be.

"So, what are these things?" Melissa gestured to the green cylinders. Each one was only sixty or seventy centimeters tall but they were two meters in diameter and they had some kind of motor device attached to them.

"These are the portable hot tubs." the intern said as he whipped the black cover off the nearest cylinder to reveal an insulated round pool of steaming water that an adult could almost submerge in.

"You're kidding." Melissa started to laugh at the idea of bringing portable hot tubs along before remembering the report of the last trip. When Isamu and his team got back they were almost frozen and had to be warmed up with body temperature and the warm summer sun. This time, they wouldn't have that advantage though. Late September was nowhere near as warm as late August, and the sun was already down. So, they would need heat… and lots of it. Ergo, hot tubs. But something seemed off, "Hmmm…"

"What?" the intern had been particularly proud of this simple solution to the problem that Kotomi-hakase had given his team, but it looked like this red-headed woman saw a problem. "Did we choose a poor solution?"

"No… the solution is perfect. There may be a problem with the execution though." then, turning to Ryota, she told him, "hand over your wallet, cell phone, and anything else you're carrying to Kenta, then go lie down in the middle of the recovery area."

"Uh… yes, hakase." Ryota was soon trotting off to the recovery circle. Melissa watched him for a moment then turned to the recovery team intern.

"From the report I read, they were not capable of movement on their own when they came back. What is your plan for getting them to the hot tubs?" she sounded like a professor as she asked the student.

"We have stretchers!" the young man was thrilled that he had a ready answer for her question.

"Good. And I suppose you already have two people assigned to each stretcher?" she asked.

"Um… we were going to do that as soon as everyone got here." his answer was a little less sure this time.

"All right, I have Ryota lying in the recovery area. Let's see your plan in action." Melissa said as she pulled out her smartphone and called up a timer function.

Melissa, Kenta, and Takeo watched as two people on the recovery team grabbed a stretcher, ran all the way to where Ryota was lying, loaded him up and headed back. Their speed coming back was a lot slower.

"How much does Ryota weigh?" Melissa asked.

"I dunno for sure. But probably more than eighty kilos." Kenta replied.

Ryota made a big show of looking comfortable while the two students labored to bring him back from center field. When they finally got the heavy worker all the way back to the hot tub, they were straining and out of breath. They were also about to put the stretcher down when Melissa stopped them.

"What are you doing? You're not done yet." Melissa gestured at the open hot tub and instructed the students, "Go ahead, dump him in."

"Hey wait!" Ryota squawked just before the side of the stretcher fell away and he flailed into the hot shallow water. He continued to flail until he was righted so that his face wasn't under water any more. Hearing some of the others that had gathered around laughing, he was about to jump up and yell at Melissa, but the look on her face told him that she didn't find this funny at all.

"Stay down. I need you to become completely soaked." Melissa said when she saw Ryota scrambling to get up.

Ryota sank back down into the water. He was a little confused but being told to relax in a hot tub wasn't the worst order he'd ever been given. It just felt a bit weird to be in the water with all his clothes on.

"All right, what's next?" Melissa asked the intern but knew the answer when she saw the blank look on his face.

"What do you mean? He's warm now." the intern tried to sound confident, but was suddenly worried that he was overlooking something.

"Sure, he's warm. But he's also completely soaked in the middle of a park, at night, in September." Melissa sounded like a professor again as she spoke not just to the intern but to all the students on the team, "You have to think of the larger picture. You got him warm, but now what? How will he dry off? His clothes are soaked now, so what will he wear? Where will he change? But before that, did you see how Ryota struggled to right himself after you dumped him in?"

"Uh… yeah." the intern had thought Ryota's flailing was hilarious just a few minutes ago but he now had a bad feeling about this too.

"I wasn't here last time but from the reports I read, the returnees would not have had the ability to do that. They were so cold, they couldn't remain standing and had almost no use of their arms, hands, or fingers. Without someone in the water with them, several of them may very well drown." Melissa told them without emotion in her voice. Looking around at their faces, she could see that many of them were in shock about such an important oversight. A few of them were ashamed and a few others looked bitter. "This is good work for a bunch of students. Everything you do here is a learning experience, is it not?"

"Yes sensei." several voices responded.

"You should not be upset or shamed from this, as long as you have learned something. Now is the time to shine and quickly resolve all the weak points in what time you have left. When you are finished reworking your execution, come get me. I will be happy to review your work again." she told the group of students. Her words seemed to invigorate most of them as they set about the solutions with determination.

"Uh… Melissa-hakase? What about me?" Ryota called out from the comfortable warmth of the hot tub where he was now thoroughly soaked.

"I'm relying on you to tell me about the solution they come up with to get you dried off and presentable." Melissa said as she walked back toward the exploration team pergola with Kenta and Takeo.

"If you're expecting those students to get Ryota presentable, you're just setting them up for failure." Kenta said jokingly.

"I heard that!" Ryota cried out from his little hot tub.

.

 **Tuesday night, September 21 – The Furukawa residence (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

Sitting around the table, they had all finished the simple dinner that the Iwao and Mikio had prepared. During the long conversation, Isamu had honestly confided the truth to this universes Sanae. Also, while they talked, the mystery of the missing Akio had been answered. Sanae told them that her husband had gotten back into acting when Nagisa graduated from high school. He was working in Tokyo now, and only came home on the weekends during the fall and spring performance seasons.

"There's something I've been wondering." Mikio asked when there was a break in the conversation between Sanae and Isamu, "The Sanae in our world is kind and nice just like you are, but the bread she makes almost killed us one time."

"Mikio!" Isamu barked. He had told Sanae the truth, but he hadn't told her everything. Embarrassing her wasn't his goal.

"Sorry, but I looked through the bakery real good and I didn't see any of the weird stuff that the Sanae in our world used to make. Everything looked… safe."

"So, I was like that in your world too?" Sanae felt the heat of embarrassment blossom on her face. Tears welled up in her eyes at the painful memory, but she admitted her weakness, "I had a really bad experience years ago. Some people got very sick. After that, I promised I wouldn't make any more of my… creations."

There was an awkward quiet around the table while everyone remembered their own experiences with Sanae's _special_ bread, but the four men also remembered how mortified she had been at the trouble she had caused everyone. Many of her friends believed that she probably would have ended up in a depression if it hadn't been for Tomoyo's intervention. Over the years, the two of them had come up with some delicious treats that ended up becoming staples of the Furukawa Bakery. Isamu raised his eyes to see the others looking at him. Iwao was practically glaring at him.

"What?" he asked. He didn't say anyone's name in particular but he was looking back at the one who seemed to be the most dissatisfied with him.

"Ya needs ta tell Sanae-sama everyting. It's only right." Iwao said softly but seriously.

"Huh?" Sanae had looked up to see the face off that was happening around the table,

"Sanae-san, I've heard you call Nagisa-chan and Ryou-chan _your girls_ several times. You think of Ryou-chan that way don't you?" Isamu asked.

"Y… yes. Akio and I both think of her like a member of the family." Sanae said. She knew that a lot of people didn't approve of her daughter's lifestyle and comments like that often put her in a defensive mindset.

"In our world, there are two more girls that you are real close to. They also went to school with Nagisa-chan and Ryou-chan. Miyazawa Yukine is now a good friend of yours. She works in your bakery. You and Akio trust her enough that you were able to return to teaching. And Sakagami Tomoyo… I don't know if you think of her as a daughter or a friend, but you are close to her too. When you bake with her, the stuff you make is really good. She doesn't normally work in the bakery though. She went to college in Hokkaido, but she came back… and now she works for the city.

"I… I went back to teaching?" Sanae said with hope in her voice, "And… I baked something good?"

"Delicious!" Iwao beamed, "You makes a Fuji-Apple pastry dats so good da people drive from all over to buy it."

Sanae was thrilled, but she still had a lot to think about. Whether or not she should believe any of this was at the top of her list. But she wanted to believe… oh yes, she wanted to believe so very very much. Still… sorting through everything she had been told, there were a few things she needed to clear up to feel completely comfortable about all of this.

"So… the Mikio that's sleeping on the floor over there is not part of your exploration team? He really is from this world?" Sanae asked.

"Uh huh." Isamu confirmed.

"Then… you have no plans to take him with you when you return tonight?" she asked him.

"That's right." Isamu suddenly saw a problem with his plan. He was going to end up leaving an unredeemed ruffian in Sanae's house when he left. That could be a problem, but he did have an idea… not a plan yet, but certainly the beginning of an idea. "Takeshi, where did you come up with that insane story about being a zombie and Mikio being a Shinigami?"

"I used to be into anime and manga. I really liked the ones with spirits and demons. But I never said Mikio was a Shinigami. He came up with that on his own." Takeshi said.

"Not me," Mikio pointed at the sleeping body, "him. I guess he thought I was a demon in human form since Takeshi was going on about being a zombie out for revenge."

"Hmm… I didn't know you were so superstitious. You really believed all that mumbo-jumbo from Takeshi?" Isamu asked Mikio.

"I didn't believe it! That guy on the floor did. But yeah… I used to believe in a lot of demon and spirit junk. I guess I stopped when we started doin all this stuff with all these scientists." Mikio replied.

"I guess that makes sense." Isamu's idea still needed some work. It was almost a plan now, but he needed a few more puzzle pieces to make sense of the picture that was coming together in his mind.

"Iwao, who did you get ahold of on the phone?" Isamu asked.

"I got da Sunohara farm, but just da mom was home. Youhei-kun is workin in Osaka and Mei-chan is still in college."

"That figures." Isamu was hoping he could talk this world's police version of Youhei into doing something for him, but the Youhei in this world had gone down a different path.

"I got a number for da Boss… I mean Sakagami-san, but it just went ta voice mail. Ryou-chan says she tinks Sakagami-san is still goin ta school in Sapporo."

 _Still? She should be done with school by now._ Isamu closed his eyes to remember all the details of the lives of the key figures that they were supposed to look up. _Sakagami Tomoyo stayed at the house of_ _an_ _Okazaki_ _relative while living in Sapporo_ _. The Okazaki family even helped her out with some of her college expenses because her own family was so unreliable. But… but if this world's Tomoyo never got close to the Okazaki's, she would be putting herself through college._ _Having to work and go to college means that_ _it would take her… a lot longer. That's it!_ "Sapporo… that could work." Isamu now had a plan.

.

"Mikio, hey wake up!" Takeshi yelled at the battered and bruised man lying on the floor.

"Huh?" Mikio opened his eyes and saw several faces looking down at him. The Shinigami, three men and one woman. All three of the men were guys that used to be friends of his… and were now all dead. He didn't recognize the woman, so he guessed she must be an angel. "Am I dead? Unh… why does being dead hurt so much?"

"Baka, you're not dead." Isamu demanded, "But you need to answer some questions and you need to listen to us."

"… or the Shinigami will send me to hell." Mikio was scared, but with the injuries to his battered body, and the pain killers in his bloodstream, he could only stare back up at the supernatural apparitions above him.

"That's right." the healthy Mikio said to his other-world self, "And you don't want that, do ya? Cause hell ain't any good for you Mikio. That time you got sick from eating that bad fish was nothing compared to what waits for you _down there_."

Isamu was about to tell his Mikio to knock it off, but he could see that the reference to the bad fish made an impact. The injured Mikio's eyes were opened wide as if the degree of fear had just been turned up to the highest setting.

"You don't have to go to hell." Isamu got Mikio's attention again. "I'm going to tell you of a way out. Will you listen?"

"Yeah… yeah, I'll listen." he stuttered through his fear.

"Do you remember Sakagami Tomoyo?" Isamu asked.

"Yeah… she almosht killed me a couple of timesh." Mikio said with a worsening slur.

"She's living in Sapporo now. I think she's going to the University there. You go find her and pledge your life to her. You serve her well, and do anything she asks. If she's still a student, you get some part time work and help put her through school. If she's out of school, you do whatever it takes to help her succeed at whatever she's doing."

"But…" Mikio looked frightened again.

"Don't worry, she only attacks thugs and criminals. As long as you do everything legal-like, she won't hurt you." Isamu said reassuringly.

"But… why? We ushed to hate her." Mikio's voice was still slurred, and he spoke slowly now. Isamu knew the alternate-Mikio wouldn't be awake much longer.

"Everything has changed since then. You deserve a second chance and so does she. Go to Sapporo. Find Sakagami-san and serve her well. Can you do that?" Isamu asked the fading consciousness.

"Go do Shapporo. Find Shakagami-shan. Sherve… her..." Mikio slowly repeated the words only once, before falling back into blissful sleep.

"He's going to be out for a while." Sanae checked the temperature of the man's forehead with the back of her fingers. "He needs to rest now."

.

"What was that all about?" Mikio asked Isamu after they got back to the dining room. He sounded a little cross but he was willing to hear Isamu out, "What's up with turning me into her servant?"

"Not you, dummy. The guy on the floor. From what you and Takeshi told me from when you found him, he was seriously outnumbered and all of his friends are dead… or at least the three of us are." Isamu said.

"So?" Mikio didn't understand where Isamu was going with this yet.

"The Mikio in this world needs to lay low while he heals, then he needs to get far away from this town… or he's going to be killed." Isamu pointed back at the sleeping man, "That's his only real chance and you know it."

"But I would never run from a fight." Mikio said stubbornly.

"That's right," Isamu agreed, "so the trick is to get you to run _to_ something good, instead of trying to convince you to run _away_ from something bad."

"Still… a servant?" Mikio winced.

"He might start off as her servant… but only if he's lucky and persistent enough to convince her that he is serious." Isamu explained, "But in the end, I think he'll end up being her sidekick."

"Sidekick?" Mikio asked.

"Sooner or later she's going to come back to this town and from the looks of it, this town needs her." Isamu thought about the disrepair of the park and the gang violence in the street in the middle of the day. "When she does, she'll clean up this town like a hero."

"And everyone knows that all the good heroes need… a sidekick." Takeshi smacked Mikio on the shoulder but stopped himself from bursting into laughter and waking up the sleeping Mikio.

"It's time. We gots ta be goin." Iwao said after he looked at his wristwatch. All of the men looked expectantly at Sanae.

"I'll come with you." Sanae told them, "I still don't know if I believe you're all from another world, but at least I believe that you won't hurt me."

.

 **Tuesday late night, September 21 – The Park across the street from the Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)**

* * *

"Here, Sanae-sama. Put dese on." Iwao handed her the spare set of goggles from his tool box. "You'll miss half da show if ya don have dese on."

"Thank you Iwao-san," she stood on second base where they told her it would be safe. She watched as the four rough looking men got everything ready and stood back to back several meters away in center field.

"Will you take care of Mikio until he is well enough to travel?" Isamu asked her while his Mikio was making the call home on the special radio.

"If he behaves himself, I will." Sanae said, "But I am a trained middle school teacher and I don't stand for poor conduct, you know."

"Yes," Isamu laughed. "Hopefully, the fear of a Shinigami coming for his soul will keep him on the right track for a while."

"Ninety seconds." Mikio called out.

"Is… is there any way for me to get in touch with you?" Sanae asked.

"Not yet. We still don't know how to go back to the same world we visited once… but our genius is working on it." Isamu smiled. "Is that an invitation, Sanae-san?"

"Sixty seconds."

"Yes, of course!" Sanae laughed. She was starting to feel caught up in their strange and fantastic tale. She was seriously hoping that this was all true now. But, at the same time, she was also wondering how they were going to pull off a disappearing act with all that gear in the middle of center field. "You boys are very entertaining. You are all welcome back any time."

"You're da best, Sanae-sama!" Iwao spoke from his heart, "Both in our world an here. Sanae-sama is always da best!"

"Thirty seconds."

"Sanae-san, at ten seconds you are going to see some light orbs on the ground. Whatever you do, don't come near them. We would hate to accidentally take you back with us and leave your family behind." Isamu warned her.

"Ten seconds."

"Really now, your joke might be going just a little… too… far?"

"Nine."

Sanae stopped talking because she was seeing the little balls of light that Isamu had warned her about.

"Eight."

She pulled the goggles off and could no longer see the little balls of light.

"Seven."

Putting the goggles back on, she now saw a lot more of the baubles and they were starting to move.

"Six."

"How does this work?" Sanae had one goggle lens over one eye and the other eye uncovered so that she could see the difference between the strange image in the goggles and what was really happening.

"Five."

"It's not a trick, Sanae-san." Isamu assured her.

"Four."

"But if it's not a trick, then why can't I see them without the goggles?" Sanae asked.

"Three."

"Keep wachin us Sanae-sama!" Iwao called out.

"Two."

"Sayonara, Sanae-san." Takeshi said.

"One."

"Yor da best!" Iwao yelled out just before they hit…

"Ze..."

"Ah!" Sanae dropped to her knees from the shock of what she had just witnessed. In her right eye, she saw hundreds of swirling lights suddenly rush up into the sky. And her left eye saw four men and all their gear suddenly… just… disappear.

After a few minutes of catching her breath and letting her nerves settle down to the unhurried sounds of the night, she got up and walked over to where they had been standing. The grass looked slightly trampled, but there was no sign of the men at all. No trap doors and no drag marks. Still looking for signs of a trick, she knew she had seen it with her own eyes, but it was all so impossible.

"But if it did happen…" Sanae said to herself, "If it did happen, then there really is a Miyazawa Yukine out there somewhere, and there really is a Sakagami Tomoyo in Hokkaido. Hmmm, I wonder how hard it is to find someone if you only know their name and when they went to high school?"

With happy thoughts of what she might do next, Sanae headed back to her home. She stopped once at the entrance to the baseball field and looked back towards center field as she made a silent wish.

 _I do hope those boys are okay._


	18. Chapter 18 - Under that old tree

**Thursday evening, September 23rd – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

"Wow, this is really exciting, isn't it?" Nagisa stood at the roped off perimeter with Ryou, other friends, and a bunch of students that were working with the recovery team.

"Uh-huh." Ryou couldn't help but feel excited too. When the scary, but actually quite nice Hiroki had arrived at the bakery to request her help, she had no idea it would be like this. There was actually more going on with the recovery than there had been when the team had been sent off. The EMTs had been impressed with her knowledge of all the emergency medical equipment that they had access to, but all of them were hoping that none of it would be necessary.

Tomoyo and Hiroki were with the two girls and relaying to them what they were hearing over their ear-buds. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of the two-way radio's to go around, and they were too far from the speakers that had been set up at the bleachers for Nagisa and Ryou to hear them.

"They got the reply tone." Tomoyo told them.

"What's a reply tone?" Nagisa asked.

"It's how we know when the exploration team is ready to come back." Tomoyo explained the best that she could, "The Communications team started sending out a query signal almost an hour ago. Every ninety seconds it will send out a special message that has to be decoded by a device that the exploration team carries. When they get to the departure place in the world they are visiting, the exploration team will wait until they hear the query from us, and then their radio sends back a reply tone. That means they are all ready to be picked up." Tomoyo paused to touch her ear as another message came in to her ear-bud.

"This is all so amazing, Kotomi-chan really is a genius!" Nagisa said with a look of awe in her face.

Ryou felt her cheek twitch and could feel herself grow a little colder. It wasn't like the feeling of competition that she got with her sister. This was different. Kotomi had taken Kyou from her and now Nagisa was becoming her fan too.

"Ninety seconds." Tomoyo called out, repeating the words in her ear-bud.

"You know, I'll be a _doctor_ soon." Ryou reminded her girlfriend. She tried not to make it sound like she was pouting, but her halfhearted effort only worked because Tomoyo and Nagisa were too distracted to notice.

"That's great," Tomoyo replied to Ryou's comment, "Then you and Kotomi will both be doctors."

"Kotomi-chan is a doctor?" Nagisa asked.

"She has two doctorate degrees… so I guess she's a double-doctor." Tomoyo said slowly. Most of her concentration was on the recovery area now, but she tried to keep up with the conversation around her too.

"I meant, a _medical_ doctor." Ryou said with her cross attitude barely in check. She was about to get seriously upset, but being surrounded by Nagisa, Tomoyo, and Hiroki, there was no-one she could take out her frustration on.

"Yes, of course. I suppose the more correct term for Kotomi is _hakase_." Tomoyo commented on a purely logical level, but to Ryou it sounded as if she had said it dismissively. "Ten seconds."

"Oooh! I see the little lights again!" Nagisa cried out. Hiroki was letting Ryou wear his spare goggles so that she could see the whole light show playing out in the middle of center field yet again, but Nagisa was still able to see the lights with just her naked eyes.

"Three. Two. One. Zero!" Tomoyo called out as they all watched the column of madly dancing lights twist and shoot up into the sky… and four men collapse to the ground in front of them.

Kotomi had not yet explained why the trip back from the world they were visiting seemed to flash-freeze the exploration team members. While it was true that the world that the first team had visited had been in a colder part of the year, all of the team members on that trip had reported a feeling of being plunged into a more absolute cold on the trip back. Logically, the team members should have felt a similar freezing process on the way out, or perhaps should have felt a corresponding heating instead. But none of them had reported any strange temperature effects on the way out. Kotomi had formed a number of theories and had already discarded several. None had provided an adequate explanation so far, but it wasn't finished investigating it yet either.

With the sudden arrival of the frozen men, Ryou didn't have time to think about being jealous for a while. She was caught up in the situation at hand and it reminded her all too much of that terrible night at the Furukawa Bakery when Nagisa almost died in her arms. But this was different in that these men arrived freezing cold, but seemed to warm up without the strange heat-draining effect that Nagisa, Tomoya, and Fuko had exhibited back then. She ran with the stretchers all the way to the portable hot tubs and watched as the shivering team members were dumped into the hot water. Each of the tubs had someone already in the water to hold onto the returnee and make sure they were safe until they could move on their own. When they were finally thawed out enough, they were helped into portable cabanas like the kinds that were often found at the beaches for people to change into their swimsuits. Towels and a change of clothes awaited them in the cabanas.

"What do you think?" Kotomi's voice surprised Ryou.

"Eh?" She had been caught up in the care for the men and was just staring at the privacy cabanas now that the adrenaline pumping part of the recovery was over. This was truly more exciting and amazing than anything she was ever likely to do and she felt beaten by the purple haired genius. "What… what do you want me to say?"

"I would like to know your opinion of this recovery process. You have always had a keen insight for health issues and you are now a trained medical professional. With both instinct and knowledge, your opinion is valuable to me. It is entirely probable that your insight now will save someone's life one day." Kotomi said.

Ryou looked at Kotomi as if she was discovering a new life form. _...valuable to me. Is that how she sees me? Is that how she sees onee-chan? Is everyone in her life only important if they are valuable to her? When onee-chan's value runs out, will Kotomi just discard her like some unwanted rubbish?_

"Very well." Ryou sighed, "I think the water is too hot. For them to go from such a cold state to immersion in hot water… they are lucky that they are very healthy and none of them had a heart attack. That being said, the heaters on these units look powerful enough to keep up with warming them for a while, but if we ran into a situation like we did with Nagisa, they will not be able to keep up. Also, I would have the tubs much closer to the recovery site. That was quite a run for the people carrying the stretchers and twice they almost dropped the person they were carrying. Other than that, it looks like a good setup."

"Excellent!" Kotomi cheered, "Your suggestion to move the tubs closer to the recovery site is the same as Melissa-chan's. But your comments about the water temperature and the water heaters was all new. I look forward to working with you."

"Eh… what?" Ryou took a step back from Kotomi, "What do you mean… _working with you_?"

"Ah, I'm being called to the debriefing now." Kotomi didn't notice Ryou's bitterness as she turned away to go to the pergola where everyone would be gathered for the debriefing. "Tomoya-kun, can you tell her about the proposal?"

"Sure, Kotomi-chan." Tomoya watched his wife leave with Melissa and knew she would be fine. Kyou would be there too and she would be among people she knew. Turning back to Kyou's younger twin sister he unexpectedly saw rage in her face.

"So… she just gets to do as she pleases?" Ryou snapped.

"What do you mean?" Tomoya asked. He could see that Ryou was deeply upset. She was normally so sweet that it was difficult to believe that she could look like this. But then, he had seen her this angry before – when they had come home for Youhei and Yukine's wedding.

"First she gets you. Then she gets onee-chan. Even Nagisa-chan is fascinated with Kotomi… _the great genius!_ And now what? She's trying to pull me in too? What… what is _wrong_ with her, Tomoya-kun?" Ryou sounded both exasperated and angry as she confronted Tomoya. Her hands were trembling and she was additionally upset because of this unfamiliar role she felt forced to play. She had always been the peace-maker. When others got upset, she was the cooler head that helped to smooth over ruffled feelings. But not this time. It was her own feelings that were ruffled and her own anger pushing her to say things she would normally keep to herself.

Tomoya regarded Ryou with a raised eyebrow. This wasn't the first time she had been upset about the way Kotomi did things, and it probably wouldn't be the last… if Ryou kept it all bottled in. He knew that she needed to talk to someone but he never felt like he was the right person since he was likely to be part of the problem. But if she was going to start saying unnecessary things out loud, especially about his wife, then he had no qualms about responding to her frustration.

"She is a genius with poor social skills." Tomoya said evenly while keeping his eyes on Ryou, "She believes concepts like organized religion and monogamy are man made constructs that make little practical sense. Since she has a very logical mind, she discards the impractical as useless and honestly follows her heart."

"Tch." Ryou balked at the idea of Kotomi following anything with her heart.

"I have now honestly answered your question, so allow me to ask one of you." Tomoya was now looking at Ryou accusingly.

"Go ahead." Ryou's arms were defensively crossed and her body language made it clear that she did not like the answer she heard, but it was one that was hard to counter. Her greatest issue with it was that it made Kotomi look like a caring and passionate person when she had only ever seemed cold and calculating to Ryou.

"What is it that is really bothering you?" Tomoya asked.

"What do you mean?" Ryou snapped back at him.

"It's obvious that you're angry about something and these snide comments aren't really like you. At least… they're not like the Ryou that I thought I knew." Tomoya realized that he was pushing her buttons, but he wanted to get to the root of the problem before it festered into something that might forever break up the relationship between Kyou and her beloved twin sister. As annoying as Ryou was being now, he didn't want that to happen to Kyou.

"What do you care?" Ryou snapped back. She wanted to demand to know if Tomoya was sleeping with her sister. She wanted to know if there was any real love between them at all or if it was, as she suspected, just fun and games for Tomoya at the expense of her onee-chan.

"I don't particularly care… is what I'd like to say. But I do. If you keep this up, you're going to hurt people that I care about." Then, after looking past Ryou for a moment, he added, "And, from the looks of it, you're going to hurt the people you care about too."

"I would never hurt onee-chan!" Ryou said defiantly. She could feel the anger make her pulse race faster and her hands clenched into fists as she thought, _How dare you suggest that I would be the one that hurts her when it is you and Kotomi that are playing with her heart so carelessly!_

"So, Kyou-chan is the one you claim to be worried about is it?" Tomoya relaxed into the cross-examination training he had gone through in law school. He knew that Ryou had a fine mind as a medical professional, but lawyers were trained interrogators and he had done well in that class.

Ryou glared back at Tomoya but said nothing.

"You've taken some psych classes in medical school, right? So tell me, how rationally does someone think, when they are angry? Not well right? You're angry right now Ryou. You're lashing out and you're going to hurt someone. But it may not be who you intend."

"Are you threatening me?" Ryou demanded through clenched teeth.

"I'm warning you." Tomoya took a seat on the edge of one of the vacated portable hot tubs and relaxed as he told her, "You stand to lose something precious if you keep this up."

"Don't you DARE lecture me!" Ryou spat. She knew she couldn't beat someone like Tomoya in a fight, but her growing rage was starting to make her disregard that danger.

"I won't lecture you. And I won't ask you to explain yourself. Not to me, but Nagisa…" Tomoya was cut off by Ryou's visceral scream.

"YOU LEAVE NAGISA OUT OF THIS!" Ryou's eyes were wide and crazed. She was on the verge of leaping at Tomoya when his next words chilled her to the bones.

"Ryou… you're so upset, you forgot that she is right behind you." Tomoya got up from his seat after he saw the blood drain from Ryou's face. "I'm guessing she has never seen you like this before. She looks terrified, Ryou."

"N… Nagisa?" Ryou meekly asked. She knew that Nagisa had been with her earlier, but hoped against impossible odds that Tomoya was wrong and she hadn't seen any of this.

"Yes." Nagisa answered with as much fear as concern. She had only ever seen Kyou become so frightening and had never imagined that her sweet Ryou could be like that too.

"Ryou-chan." Tomoya said firmly as he got ready to leave to meet up with his wife, "You saved my life, so I'm going to do you this for you. I am going to forget that this conversation ever happened. I won't say anything to Kotomi-chan or Kyou-chan. So, do yourself a favor. Stay here for a while and talk things out with Nagisa-chan."

"You… you hate me now, don't you?" Ryou asked. Even she didn't know whether she was asking Nagisa or Tomoya, but Tomoya answered her first.

"I do not hate you. I don't even dislike you. I've always thought of you as a good friend and I'd like to keep it that way. But there is something bothering you that needs to be resolved. I'm placing my hopes in Nagisa-chan now. If, after you talk to her… if there is anything I can do to help, I will." Tomoya walked away and noticed Youhei waiting in the shadows of one of the cabanas.

"You heard?" Tomoya asked quietly.

"Yeah… it wasn't completely unexpected." Youhei admitted.

"Oh?" Tomoya raised an eyebrow at his friend. Ryou had been a bit stand-offish with him since high school, but he had not anticipated anything like this. _It was completely unexpected to me!_

"She's been getting moodier since she moved back to town. Yukine noticed it first, but I saw it too." Youhei said.

"I just wish I knew what was really bothering her. I mean, I have an idea but…" Tomoya let his thoughts trail off as he started walking again.

"Do you want me to find out?" Youhei offered as he fell into step with his taller friend.

"No, but I do appreciate the offer." Tomoya said through a tired smile, "I really am putting my hope in Nagisa… and her mother."

"Sanae-san?" Youhei asked.

"Yes. The girls are living at the Furukawa house now and Sanae-san is far too perceptive not to notice if the girls are troubled about something." Tomoya said.

"You're going to tell Sanae-san about this?" Youhei asked.

"No. I won't have to. She's probably already noticed… she'll will know what to do." Tomoya felt his confidence building with this conversation with his old friend. "Needless to say, you'll forget about this too, right?"

"Nope!" Youhei smirked, "I'm gonna tell Yukine everything."

"Eh?" Tomoya was about to rebuke Youhei's choice but re-thought his reaction. Like Sanae-san, Youhei's wife was another person blessed with an incredible power of perception. Also like Sanae, she was someone who could be discreet. "Yukine-san huh? You know, I'm feeling better about this already."

The two old friends stopped talking as they arrived at the pergola where the debriefing was going on. Before stepping into the lighted canopy, Tomoya gave a last look back toward the portable hot tubs and saw the silhouettes of the two girls. _I do hope they can work this out._

.

"Nagisa?" Ryou reached out to her girlfriend but then took her hand back when Nagisa didn't reach out for her too.

"Ryou… you really frightened me. I've never seen you like that before." Nagisa wanted to embrace her friend more than anything, but she was still getting over the shock of what she had seen.

"I didn't like being like that. I hated it the whole time I was angry. But… but… I was so angry, Nagisa. I was _so_ angry!" Ryou's body trembled as she remembered the rage that had so recently been running through her veins. Rage that had made her say things she didn't want to say. Rage that made her reveal her deep seated anger and scare the person who was closest to her now. The words rushed out as the first teardrops started to fall, "Nagisa… I… I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't mean to get so mad. You know I'm not really like that, don't you? I would never hurt you! I'm so sorry! Please… please, don't hate me!"

"No!" Nagisa found the courage now and wrapped her arms around her beloved and hurting Ryou. "I'll never hate you, no matter what!"

"Oh Nagisa, I'm so scared I'm going to lose you!" Ryou cried out as her tears started to soak into Nagisa's shirt.

"Lose me? Why would you lose me?" Nagisa blinked. She couldn't imagine whatever it was that must seem so real to her girlfriend. _Is she worried that I'll get sick_ _like I did before_ _?_ _But Kotomi said I should never get sick like that again, didn't she?_

"Don't let them take me away from you." Ryou bawled. Losing the strength in her legs, she and Nagisa sank to their knees in the grass between the empty tubs. "I don't want to lose you!" Ryou said through choking sobs.

 _Take you away from me?_ Nagisa wondered what could be bothering her frightened lover, but this wasn't the time to ask probing questions. She could tell that Ryou was extremely distressed but she couldn't get anything out of her sobbing friend for quite a while. All she could do was comfort Ryou as she cried out her fears, her anger, and all the other worries that had been dragging her down. Desperately wanting to help her girlfriend, but not knowing what else to do, Nagisa quietly cried too. Still kneeling in the grass between two of the hot tubs, she held and gently petted her purple haired girlfriend in the darkness.

.

 **Saturday afternoon, September 25th – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

A few days had passed and all the evidence of the second grand experiment had been removed from the park. It was back to being a place where children could entertain themselves on the playground equipment and bigger kids could make use of the baseball field, volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts. Akio had been one of those big kids earlier in the morning. There had been a pick-up game at the baseball field and he was all smiles. There was a new game going on now, but it was the younger children from the middle school that were there now, so Akio was sitting with his wife at a picnic table near the young children's playground.

Also at their table were Nagisa, Ryou, Yukine, and Kouko. Sanae, Kyou, Kouko, and Yuki had all arrived with the bigger kids, once school had been let out, but Yuki had some shopping she needed to attend to so she had left the park in a sprint to catch up with Melissa and Tomoyo for their shopping date.

The rest of them watched Yukine's little Yoichi and Kouko's two kids playing with their Okazaki friends. The older Okazaki boys were there. They were having a competition with Kouko's daughter Maiko, to see who could swing the highest. Kouko's younger son Yasuo was climbing the stairs to get to the top of the big slide, with Yoichi and the purple haired Okazaki daughter, Michiko.

Kouko couldn't help but giggle when she looked over at her little sister's ikiryo trying hard to be responsible and mature. But her sister could plainly see how much she was wanting desperately to climb inside the wooden playground castle with the little ones.

"What?" Nagisa wanted to know what her former art teacher was laughing at.

"Fuko is being silly." Kouko said as quietly as she could.

"Fuko is not silly! Fuko is very mature and reliable!" Fuko objected.

"Fuko is referring to herself in first person again." Kouko reminded her agitated sister.

"Ah!" Fuko's hands covered her mouth as if that would stop everyone from hearing the words she had already said.

"More to the point, I think Fuko is behaving very responsibly." Sanae said.

"Thank you, Sanae-san!" Fuko hoped her sister would listen to the nice words of the other mother at the table.

"But Fuko, I think it's killing you to do that. If you want to play with the kids, I think you should." Sanae said.

"Ah!" Fuko reeled as if she had been hit, "Fuko does want… I mean… I do want to play with the children, but I also want to be more mature and reliable."

"There is a time for being mature and reliable. But there is also a time for playing with children." Sanae said sagely, "There are plenty of adults here now so you should take this opportunity to enjoy them as much as you can. Before you know it, they will be too old for this kind of play and you may regret those missed opportunities."

"Oh… okay. Then I will play with them as soon as they come down the slide!" Fuko said with mixed determination and excitement.

When the three younger kids got to the top of the wooden playground castle, Michiko looked around worriedly. It hadn't seemed so high when she had started climbing the stairs with Yoichi, but it seemed awfully far off the ground now.

"Yasuo, are you afraid?" Yoichi asked the boy with the reddish brown hair. He didn't ask it in a mean way and was smiling as he looked down the long slide.

"N...no. I'm not afraid." Yasuo said bravely. Truthfully, he was more than a little scared at how high and steep this slide was, and he was hoping that they wouldn't ask him to go first. Now that he could see over the edge, he no longer wanted to get close to the scary slide.

"Good!" Yoichi plopped down at the top of the slide, but held onto the sides and looked back up at his friends, "Maiko-chan, you sit behind me and hold onto me tight. Then Yasuo-kun will sit behind you and hold onto me too."

"Um… yeah." Yasuo watched as Maiko got on the slide behind Yoichi and wrapped her arms around his chest. Then it was his turn to get on the slide. Since he was riding with both of them, it wasn't so scary any more and he was able to sit down behind Maiko-chan and reach up to hold onto Yoichi's arms.

"Okay, let's goooooooo!" Yoichi cried out as he let go of the sides of the slide, and the three of them zoomed down the long slide quickly, but uneventfully.

In fewer than three heartbeats, they were all safely at the bottom and Yasuo was looking back up the slide and wondering why it had been so frightening.

"Hoo… that wasn't so scary after all." Yoichi said while he got up from the end of the slide and helped Maiko up too.

"You… you were scared too?" Michiko blinked in disbelief as she regarded the calm looking blue eyed boy.

"Oh yeah. It looked so high from up there." Yoichi gestured at the top of the slide where they had all been standing just a moment before and said, "I'm glad Yasuo wasn't afraid. If he hadn't been there to hold onto both of us, I don't know if I could have done it. Thank you, Yasuo-kun."

"Yes, thank you, Yasuo-kun!" Michiko added and bowed to the shorter boy.

Yasuo stood with his mouth hanging open and a slight blush on his face from the other two thanking him. It was too late now to admit that he had been just as scared as they were.

"Fuko thinks you were all brave to ride the big slide!" Fuko cheered them on.

"Does Aunt Fuko like the big slide too?" Yasuo asked.

"Fuko never rode the big slide before." Fuko answered timidly. She would say that much but she would never admit to being afraid of a children's slide… never!

"Aunt Fuko," Yasuo asked as he slid his little hand into hers, "Will you ride the big slide with me?"

"Ah… um… yes." Fuko stammered at first, but shook off the fear and pulled herself together for her usual bravado, "Fuko would love to ride the big slide with her cute little nephew!"

.

"Has Fuko ever rode the big slide before?" Sanae asked Kouko.

"No. She doesn't like slides at all. She's always too afraid of them." Kouko answered.

"I can hear you!" Fuko called out from where she was now climbing into the wooden castle with the smaller children.

"She has amazingly good hearing." Ryou commented. She was impressed since everyone at the table was talking in hushed tones and the wooden castle was many meters away.

"Yes, she always has." Kouko agreed.

"I bet Fuko will chicken out." Akio whispered so quietly that Ryou had a hard time catching it.

"I will not!" Fuko's voice came back from somewhere inside the castle.

"That's… remarkably good hearing." Ryou didn't want to say any more. She didn't know how Fuko's body had been doing in the hospital, but the ikiryo certainly had sensory capabilities far beyond the human norm.

The others at the table agreed with her and wondered about their ghost girl friend while the nearby swing competition was coming to an end.

.

Kyou stood behind Shuichi's swing and kept a careful eye on him as his swing went higher and higher. Kotomi was behind Shuji and Tomoya was watching the competitive little Maiko as she tried her best to keep up with the two larger boys. Shuji had stopped pulling as hard when his arc brought him close to the horizontal. He could see that Maiko was struggling to catch up, but she was almost there. Shuichi however, was charging ahead with all of his strength. His arc was carrying him past the horizontal plane of the top of the swing-set now and he was clearly flying higher than the other two. But that was also problematic.

Beyond the horizontal of the top bar of the swing-set where the chains were connected, the swing would continue it's arc in the upward motion, but it wouldn't follow the arc back down. Gravity would bring the swing and the boy straight down until the slack chains were again at their full extension and the swing would suddenly jolt back into the arc.

"Shuichi, slow down." Kyou warned.

"I can do it Kyou-mama!" Shuichi cried out in exhilaration as the swing snapped at the bottom of the forward moving drop. Then he was sailing through the front half of the arc and was soon upside down and passing through the horizontal on the other side of the swing. But he did not have nearly the same level of control over the swing in this position. When the chains went slack, the seat of the swing floated down near his knees.

Like a fortunate camera that happens to catch the moment of a disaster in it's lens, a crystal clear still-frame was imprinted in Kyou's mind. In that brief moment of time, she could see the problem. The child was unaware of his own impending trauma and still wearing a triumphant smile from the dizzying heights his courage and strength had propelled his swing. There was not enough time to cry out. There certainly wasn't enough time to react before the chains went taut, the seat snapped into it's arc from behind Shuichi's calves – flipping him over violently and slamming his small body into the ground underneath the swing with a dull thud.

"NO!" Kyou screamed as she launched herself at the child's body on the ground under the frantically swaying and now empty swing seat.

Tomoya winced, but didn't move from his position behind Maiko-chan. He knew that this was a lesson almost every boy learned eventually. But more importantly, he could see that Kyou was already in motion to where Shuichi lay unmoving and stunned. As soon as Maiko was in the back of her arc, Tomoya seized her and brought her to a stop just as Kotomi was doing with Shuji.

Kyou was on the fallen child in an instant. She could see that he wasn't breathing but he wasn't unconscious either. In a flash, she had him in her arms and was running over to her sister.

.

"RYOU!" Kyou's urgent cry startled her sister and just about everyone else in the vicinity.

Fuko instinctively pulled the three little ones she was looking after into her arms and looked around for whatever the cause for alarm was. A lot of crazy things had happened in seven years of High School and Fuko's reflexes were further honed by many of the clubs she had joined over the years. But this time there was no danger to her or those she had been watching over.

Ryou's shock was over in an instant. As soon as she saw her sister carrying the child in her arms, she knew this was an injury of some kind. By the way he was struggling and in pain, she knew he was still conscious. By the way his lips were turning blue, she knew that he had just had the wind knocked out of him.

"He fell off the swing really hard and he's not breathing now!" Kyou said unnecessarily as she handed Shuichi over to her sister.

"Look at me!" Ryou said to the struggling boy as she took him into her lap and held his face between her hands just centimeters away from her own. "Look at me!"

Shuichi's panic paused for just a moment and he could see Kyou-mama's face… no, it was Auntie Ryou? She was yelling something at him but the sound of pounding in his ears made it hard to hear her.

"You are okay. You just had the wind knocked out of you. I know you're scared, but you will start breathing again real soon. Just try to calm down and it won't hurt as much." Ryou calmed the panicking youngster until she could hear squeaks of his first breaths coming back. She kept her eyes on his face while he struggled to breathe again.

 _His face…_

Shuichi had a face like a young version of Tomoya. He even had his father's steel blue hair. But the eyes… He had those beautiful purple eyes just like her sister's. For a moment she remembered the first time she had seen her sister like this. She had fallen out of a tree and had the wind knocked out of her just as Shuichi did now. But they were both younger then and for an agonizing minute, they both though Kyou was going to die since she couldn't breathe. Ryou remembered the joy that she felt when Kyou started breathing again. She had been holding her sister just like she was now holding Shuichi and looking into her beautiful purple eyes.

Now she was looking into Shuichi's face but she could see Kyou in those eyes so easily. _No! That isn't possible. Shuichi is Kotomi's son. He has her purple eyes… not Kyou's. There is nothing of my sister in any of these children. They have nothing to do with onee-chan. Nothing!_ Her internal rant was stopped when she felt the little boy shake and grab onto her tightly.

"Auntie Ryou!" Shuichi cried out while he buried his face in her chest, "I was so scared! I thought I was going to die! Thank you… thank you for holding me."

 _I was so scared! I thought I was going to die!_ was the same thing her sister had said after she started breathing again. Under that old tree. So many years ago.

Timidly at first, Ryou pulled the frightened boy into a hug and held him tight. Patting his head, she gently rocked him back and forth until his cries were gone and he was asleep. It was a natural reaction for a child to fall into sleep after a traumatic experience – especially if they were in a place that made them feel safe. It was so common, that her sister had done the exact same thing.

Under that old tree.

So many years ago.


	19. Chapter 19 - The Maid Interview

**Sunday morning, September 26 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

She wasn't sure why her life had derailed, but it had. Having done well in high school and being part of the school's award winning choir, she had high hopes that she would be able to break out of the choke-hold that fate had on her family. The boys and men of her family either died or just… left. The women worked service jobs until they were old and broken. Her mother and her cousin had both worked extra jobs to send her to a good high school and they had all hoped and prayed that the good school, her academic performance, and her singing talent could carry her to a scholarship at a university and a chance at a better future.

In her senior year, the choir club was poised to go to the National competitions. Even if they didn't get that far, colleges would have their representatives at the Prefecture competitions to try and scout out the young and talented. With the money her family had saved for her and a scholarship, she would have her chance at the dream. The night before the competition, she went to sleep full of confidence and anticipation.

But cruel fate wasn't through with her yet, it seemed. She awoke on the morning of the competition with laryngitis. Her own despair was worsened when she was told that her team would be pulling out of the competition. They did not have enough members to cover for the loss of even a single individual, so it couldn't be helped. Her friends in the choir and the school told her that they didn't blame her… but she knew that she had been the one to bring them down.

Her mother and aunt lied to her and told her that there was enough money and she could still go to college. She was in her first year at a local university when she got the call that her mother had collapsed. It wasn't until she went home that she discovered that her mother, aunt, and cousin had taken on extra jobs so that she could go to school. They had paid for her room and board, her tuition and her books. The monthly payments had never been late. Everything had been taken care of. Yet, at the tiny house where her small family lived, there was no medicine in the cabinet and there was very little food in the pantry.

She took over her mother's jobs knowing that the medical bills would be high… and that she would never be going back to college. When her mother got better, she called a man that promised honest work that paid well. Although it was work, his promises were mostly lies. It wasn't that honest and it didn't pay all that well… but her family didn't have to work themselves to death any more.

With very few exceptions, the friends she had made in high school and the half year she was in college gradually faded away. Having to work all the time, she never had a chance to meet up with them and, given her circumstances, she dreaded the eventual question about what she was doing with her life. The dream of going to college and breaking into a better life was over. The kinds of jobs she could get would never take her anywhere, but they paid the bills. It wasn't something she cried about any more. She had long since accepted her fate and, although she was still teased with dreams of a different future, she had given up hope for a better life.

.

And now, out of the blue, her cousin called her and told her about a better job. She claimed that the people were nice and the two of them would be working together. It had sounded wonderful. Her cousin hadn't said anything about how much it paid, but a chance at working for nice people in a job that didn't make you feel dirty… was worth a lot to her now. It was worth enough to quit her previous job after getting her last pay envelope. That was last night. Now she was jobless, but at least beginning to have hope again.

She woke up early the morning of the interview. She made herself as presentable as she could. She put on the best clothes she had, and felt the effects of growing hope driving her steps when she left her mother's little house.

So, here she was. On her only day off, she was at a job interview. The house was in a good neighborhood and it looked nice from the outside, but she had actually been expecting more. Her cousin told her that the house had a butler as well, so her mind had been racing with the imagery of castles and palaces. She had also been told that she would be interviewed by a few others before she got a chance to see the butler. She wasn't worried about that though. Over the last several years she had developed a disdain for the rich and their elitist attitudes. She had no doubts that she would be able to dance her way into the good graces of _Wealthy-sama_ – whoever it was.

"Oh, I'm so glad you came!" her cousin was dressed in a maid outfit that wasn't cliché – at least there was that. She seemed genuinely excited as she led the interviewee through the house to the study where the interview would take place. "Now you go on in and introduce yourself while I go get Ojiisama."

"Hello. I am here about the interview." she said to the person on the other side of the desk. He was standing in front of the big picture window and gazing at a courtyard behind the house. The man stood a little taller than her but not much. His hair was jet black and straight. When he turned around, she could see that he was younger than she had expected, looked to be in pretty good physical shape, and had the most amazing blue eyes. Given his size, if his hair had been blond she might have taken him for…

"Hello Sugisaka." a familiar voice filled the room even though he hadn't said it very loud.

"S… Sunohara?" she stammered out his name as she felt all her hopes slipping away once again.

"Yes. I ran the background check on your cousin when she took the job, so I knew who was coming to interview as soon as I heard it was her relative." Youhei said the words carefully. Her eyes were open wide in surprise and panic and Youhei could feel her sudden tension. He knew that she could be easily spooked if he said the wrong thing… or said something the wrong way.

"So… this job… I would be working for you?" she said the words with all the energy of a deflating balloon. She remembered the third year asshole that had ferreted out the truth behind the threatening letter she had left for that Drama Club girl. There had been several days of fearful suspense as Sunohara got closer and closer to exposing her. If it hadn't been for the demoniacally possessed Fujibayashi scaring her senseless that day behind the gym building, Youhei would have been her worst memory of her high school life.

"Not quite." Youhei chuckled. Then he asked the downcast girl, "I am a friend of the family that you will be working for. Do you remember Okazaki Tomoya?"

"I remember him from the Drama Club. He was a delinq… he was your friend, right?" she was able to stop herself before calling her possible future employer a delinquent. _Waitaminit… didn't he get married while he was still in high school? Then he got the Student Council President into some trouble before graduation. What has he got to do with all of this?_

"That's right. But he changed a lot since then. He is a lawyer now. His wife is a very important person in the community, and they have several kids with another on the way. They are good people. They treat the people that work for them well because they trust them. Of course, that is because they are people that can be trusted." Youhei stopped talking and silence filled the room.

"Ah!" Sugisaka had been staring at the floor and hadn't realized that Sunohara had been getting closer. She didn't notice until he stopped talking and she raised her head to see him directly in front of her.

"Can you be trusted, Sugisaka?" Youhei asked bluntly. The look in his eyes said he was evaluating her but they also seemed disbelieving. To Sugisaka, it felt like he had already decided that any answer she gave would be a lie.

"I…" she was about to reply when she heard the sound of the door opening and someone entering the room behind her. Already feeling apprehensive from Sunohara's questioning, she spun around to see Fujibayashi Kyou in the open doorway.

"Sugisaka…" Kyou started to say something but didn't get the chance.

"I… I have to go. This is all wrong." her panic had risen to the fight-or-flight level and since there was no chance of fighting either of these two, it was time to leave.

"Sugisaka, wait!" Kyou called out as the scared former school-mate rushed past her. Both she and Youhei came out of the study in time to see the fleeing brown haired girl lose her footing on the slick hardwood floor. Out of their view, they could hear the sound of her crashing to the floor of the living room.

"No no no no no no…" Curled up on the floor where she fell, Sugisaka was clutching her shin where her leg had smacked into a low table. She wanted to be away from here but the pain shooting through her leg was incredible. Her hands balled into fists and her eyes shut tightly to try and deny the reality that she was unable to move, while the sound of footsteps came closer. Surrounding her. No more chance to run. No escape. Only despair…

She jolted when she felt the small hand of a child on the crown of her head. Then a voice as sweet and innocent as a field of flowers cut through the darkness like the rays of the sun bursting through heavy storm-clouds.

"Are you okay?" Michiko asked the lady on the floor with the same red-brown hair color as her friends Yasuo and Maiko. Normally afraid of strangers, Michiko hadn't seen this person until she was startled by the crashing sound. When she looked up from her coloring book, she saw the lady curled up on the floor and crying. Lying on the floor like that, she was much shorter than Michiko – completely different from other adults that were standing up so tall and scary the first time Michiko saw them. And… the lady was crying.

"What happened? Why are you crying?" Michiko asked while she continued to pat the lady's head. This was how Okāsan and Kyou-mama took care of her when she was hurt so she knew what to do now.

"I… I fell down and hurt my leg." Sugisaka still wanted to flee, but she was astounded by how comforting this child's hand patting her head was.

"Is it broken?" the little girl asked.

"No… I don't think so. It's probably just bruised." Sugisaka started to get up but she felt the pressure of the little girl's hands pushing her back down to the floor.

"Don't get up yet. Not until you finish crying. I will stay with you." Michiko had heard those words many times from her parents. Sometimes she was even comforted by one of her brothers or even… Sunohara Yoichi. She didn't always like it and often wanted to get back to playing, but mostly she liked being comforted after getting hurt… especially if it was Yoichi.

"You're very kind, but it doesn't hurt so much any more." Sugisaka said.

"But you're still crying." Michiko asked more than stated.

"Yeah… but that's because I did something embarrassing." Sugisaka admitted to the little girl.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Michiko whispered a little too loudly.

A few of the gathered adults coughed or clapped their hands over their lips to avoid laughing out loud.

"No!" Sugisaka said quickly as her eyes flew open and she blushed. She criticized herself for having said something like that to a child. _Of course that would be the first thing a child would think of… Baka!_

"Michiko-chan." called out a voice that sounded as ancient as the hills around the town, and strangely familiar like a memory from the happier days of her youth.

"Ojiisan!" the little girl responded joyfully to that voice.

"When she is ready to get up, will you bring her to me in the kitchen?" the kind old voice asked.

"Yup!" Michiko replied happily. Then it occurred to her to ask, "Does she belong to you, Ojiisan?"

"Not yet." the elder gentleman chuckled, "But we shall see."

.

When Sugisaka had the courage to look up again, there was no-one in the living room except her little caretaker. She had been stunned to hear the old man's words. Questions bombarded her mind while the pain in her leg lessened and the little girl kept up her simple patting. _Who is Ojiisan? Do I still have a chance at this job? What of Sunohara, Okazaki, and Fujibayashi? Surely, they wouldn't want me around._ _After what I did to their friend in high school and all my failures since then…_ "I'm just so useless."

"Do you need to cry again?" Michiko asked a disheartened and beaten looking Sugisaka.

"No. But, maybe I should just leave." Sugisaka thought about it. From the living room, the hallway to the front door was right in front of her.

"You'll get me in trouble." the little girl frowned, "I promised Ojiisan that I would bring you to him."

"Well, we can't have that. Not after you took care of me so well. So, is your Ojiisan a nice man?" Sugisaka asked the purple haired and blue eyed girl.

"Oh yes, he's wonderful! I've known him my whole life! I have another Ojiisan, but he lives in Hokkaido." Michiko chirped as she watched the lady push herself up into a sitting position. "Are you ready for your hug now?"

"Huh?" Sugisaka was confused at the sudden change in conversation.

"I always get a hug after I finish crying and before I go back to playing." Michiko explained as if it was the natural order of things.

"Then… I suppose I should have my hug then." Sugisaka was expecting something quick and was startled when the little girl's arms wrapped around her neck and held on tight.

"Are you going to be okay now?" Michiko finished out the healing ritual exactly as she had learned it from her parents. A firm hug, the comforting question spoken softly in the ear, and a hand gently patting her on the back.

"Yes, I think I will. And… thank you for taking care of me." Sugisaka would treasure meeting this little girl even if she didn't get the job after all. She was in a daze when the hug ended and the little girl took her by the hand and led her to the kitchen.

"Bye bye!" the little girl waived as she ran off to get back to the living room. Her little feet carried her quickly… too fast for Sugisaka's addled brain to reply with more than a return waive.

.

"Good morning, Sugisaka. It is good to see you again." the old but familiar voice called out from behind her. She was still looking at the spot where the enchanting little girl had been standing and was lost in a fugue until she heard that voice again.

 _That voice… again? It was a_ voice that took her back to a better time when she had good friends and still believed her future was a bright and wonderful place.

She turned to the voice and felt the sensation of almost passing out. Even if she had not just hurt her leg, she would have stumbled when she came face to face with… "Sensei!?"

"I retired from that title some time ago." Koumura smiled at the shock on the girl's face. He remembered her fondly from the days of the Choir Club and then the Performance Club. When he retired from the school, he had wished her well with her future endeavors, but if she was here to apply for the maid job, something must have happened to the bright future he thought she had. "I am the butler for this family now and I have a new title."

"Ojiisan…" Sugisaka remembered what the little girl called him, "was that your granddaughter?"

"No… I never had any children. She is the youngest child of the Okazaki family. I have been with them since before any of their children were born… and I am very old. So I suppose it is not so unusual for them to call me that." he smiled.

"Yeah, I guess." she politely agreed with his words, but she knew it was far from just that. The little girl had responded to him with the kind of adoration a child shows for a beloved grandparent… not just an old man that wears a title because his hair is white. "She is a very sweet child."

"Her name is Michiko and she will be starting school this coming spring. Her older brothers are protective of her and are usually not too far away when there is company in the house. Their names are Shuichi and Shuji. Although not identical, they are twins and share a number of interests." He paused a moment to look Sugisaka over then asked, "Can you remember all of this, or should you be taking this down?"

"Huh?" Sugisaka's mouth fell open in shock, "I… I got the job? But… Sunohara… and Fujibayashi?"

"You may have made a poor impression to them, but you passed an interview hurdle that even your cousin had trouble with." Koumura told her, "That little girl is terribly shy. It took her two months to stop hiding behind my legs when your cousin would come into the room. Not only was she not frightened of you, she approached you on her own, and even helped you when you were hurt. Some might say she was just mimicking Kyou-chan…"

"Her mother?" Sugisaka asked.

"No… well… biologically, her mother is Ichinose Kotomi – now Okazaki Kotomi. But Kyou-chan has been raising all of the children along with Kotomi and Tomoya since they were born, so the children call her Kyou-mama and she treats them as if they were her own children."

"Oh… I see." Sugisaka wondered what it must be like to grow up in such a family.

"Hmmm…" Koumura saw the disturbed expression on Sugisaka's face and asked, "Will it bother you if the family structure of this household is a bit… unusual? Are you worried about the safety or emotional environment that these children are growing up in?"

"No… that's not it." Sugisaka knew why he was asking that question so bluntly. If any aspect of their lifestyle bothered her, he would send her away. But polygamy… or whatever was going on here, was nothing compared to some of the awful environments she had worked. "I was just thinking how jealous I am of them… of the children. My father ran off after I was born and my mother worked so much, I rarely saw her. But these kids have a father and two mothers that love them."

"Very well then." Koumura nodded and decided she would be a good fit. "If you can banish that jealousy, you have a good chance of finding something here that is far better than any paycheck or benefit."

"Oh?" Sugisaka worried a bit. Those were the kind of words she was used to hearing right before they offered wages that were substantially lower than expected.

"As you have already discovered with little Michiko-chan, this family is not afraid to love." he smiled at her surprise and told her, "It may not be long before you are being called obachan, or perhaps neechan."

"Eh?" Sugisaka was both pleased and terrified at the prospect. She hadn't been a very good girl… and she hadn't been a particularly good adult. _Surely, these children deserve a better neechan than me!_

.

 **Tuesday evening, October 5th – Furukawa residence**

* * *

Sanae was both happy and sad at finally being allowed to go home. The previous weekend, Tomoya and Kyou had begged her to stay over at their house for several days since Kotomi's research was at a critical point. She didn't understand fully why it was so important for her to be there. They had reliable old Koumura and at least one of the maids there all the time. But even Nagisa and Ryou had practically pushed her out the door to go help out.

That had been too much, and Sanae was pretty sharp after all. She knew they were all up to something but she couldn't figure out why she was banned from her own house for several days. It was quite the mystery, but she knew they were all good kids and, even if they were having a bit of fun with her, she knew there wouldn't be anything harmful involved.

At first concentrating on her work as a middle school teacher, she had plenty to do in the evenings. But with the assistance of a butler and a maid in the house to thwart all the usual distractions, she was able to breeze through her class preparations in no time at all. And that meant… plenty of time to play with her pretend grandchildren! Sanae and Akio both knew that Nagisa was frail, even if Kotomi was right and the sickness never came after her again. Nagisa's body had been through too much when she was younger, and she just didn't have the health to risk carrying a child. But that didn't mean Sanae couldn't be a grandmother to other people's kids. She looked forward to chances like this with relish.

Watching them play, getting down on the floor and playing with them, reading to them while they fell asleep, and holding them when they didn't feel so good… all were memories she would treasure for years to come. And she had been able to make wonderful memories like that for almost five days. It had been marvelous… but it had been exhausting too. She looked forward to a relaxing evening with just Nagisa tonight. Akio had been called away to finish some scenes for a special presentation that was being filmed in Osaka, and it was Ryou's turn to work the rotations at the hospital as part of her Medical School training. Yes… a nice quiet house would be good for her now. Or, so she told herself. Truly, she was a person who liked to be around friends and family… even if doing so reminded her of the grandchildren she would never have.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" shouted a house full of people when she turned the light on.

Akio was the first to give her a hug… and offer her some support when she almost fainted.

Nagisa and Ryou hugged her next, and then it was Tomoyo.

"Happy birthday, Sanae." Tomoyo smiled at the woman who always felt more like a mother to her than her own ever did. "I know this may seem strange, but the boys have some things they want to show you."

"They do?" Sanae was a bit surprised at this. She had always felt guilty around those friends of Yukine and Tomoyo… ever since some of her bread almost killed them.

"It's like this, Sanae-sama." Iwao stumbled out the words, "Youse always so good to us. Even on other worlds when ya never seen us before, yore just the best. So… we thought, as a birthday present, we'd fix some stuff for ya."

"Fix some stuff?" Sanae asked. The answer had her following the boys around for almost an hour to see all the things they had worked on. They acted like little boys that just finished their first craft project and wanted to show their mom how good they were. But they really did do good work… and a lot of it too! A bad spot on the roof was fixed as well as the floor in the kitchen, the ceiling in the hallway, and the window in the bathroom. Out in the bakery, they had moved several of the ovens to make them easier to access and clean, and they repaired the main gas line. Of course, the gas line had to be repaired after the old pipes broke when they moved the oven. So, they kind of made that work for themselves, but Akio pointed out that it was good to know that the fragile old pipes were replaced with something new and more reliable.

Tomoyo had tested out the oven by making a truly incredible cake for Sanae. Knowing how many people would come to Sanae's birthday party, she had taken the opportunity to make another of the multi-tiered cakes that looked too pretty to eat. Well… at least it was pretty enough that everyone waited until all the pictures were taken before cutting it to pieces and devouring it like a bunch of starving wolves.

But Sanae didn't mind. She watched the boys as they tried to sing with Akio, enjoyed the cake, and talked about what the next Sanae – on the next world might be like. They all agreed that she would be wonderful, which made Sanae smile.

Others were there with more traditional gifts. Tomoya, Kotomi, Kyou, and Yuki gave her lots of pretty new clothes. Melissa gave her a genuine Stetson cowboy hat. Nagisa and Ryou gave her some lovely jewelry. Yukine and Kouko had left their husbands at home to watch their kids, but they had brought her some nice gifts too.

It was while Kouko and Sanae were chatting that Kyou and Yuki approached them. Kyou had a moderately good poker face, but it was easy to see that Yuki was very excited about something.

"Furukawa-san, Yoshino-san… I have something important to ask you." Kyou said more formally than usual. She waited until they both nodded to continue and asked, "I know you will need to think about this, but I would like you to both come work for me."

"Kyou-chan, are you sure about this? That's an awfully big step to hire two new teachers all of the sudden." Sanae warned.

"Actually, I'll be hiring three." Kyou corrected. "And… it's not so sudden. I will need you to start at the beginning of the next school year, next spring. But I'm going to need the help then, or I'll be in a difficult situation."

"Huh?" Kouko hadn't heard about the successes of Kyou's new education plan. Being a High School teacher, she wasn't all that enamored with the idea of moving down to an elementary program, but Yuki's excitement was infectious. Her curiosity got the better of her and she had to ask, "What's going on, Kyou-chan?"

.

"Do you think they'll do it?" Tomoya asked aloud as he watched Kyou and Yuki from across the room. They were both wildly animated while they eagerly told their friends about the successes they had, and their plans for the near future.

"They'll be missing an excellent opportunity if they don't." Melissa said absently. She was looking over Kotomi's shoulder at her computer screen which was now in a laptop configuration.

Tomoyo, Isamu, and several of the other boys were with them. They had no idea what was going on inside Kotomi's head or on her computer, but the boys were enjoying their third helping of Tomoyo's cake and talking about who should be on the next team.

"Well, I'm definitely on the team next time!" Ryota demanded, "I'm the only one left that hasn't gone yet."

"Then the other two slots are between me, Hiroki, and Takeo." Kenta said.

"Huh? Why just you three?" Mikio was close to being angry and wanted to know why he hadn't made the list.

"You went last time." Takeo pointed out to Mikio.

"That ain't fair! Nobody said you couldn't go twice in a row. Lookit Isamu, he goes every time!" Takeshi stood up as if his words had been a challenge.

Several of the boys saw Tomoyo cringe and they glared at Takeshi. He saw the look of pain on her face too and he knew that he had gone too far. He sat back down with a mumbled apology.

"He's da Team Leader. He hasta go every time. Da res of us hasta take turns wit da other three spots." Iwao said gently. He wasn't ready to fight over a spot, and he didn't think he would have to. He trusted Tomoyo and Isamu to make things fair for everyone.

"I've been thinking about that." Isamu said slowly, "I think we need another team leader."

"Huh?" Tomoyo's head popped up and she asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"Yeah… and I get that in a proper company place, we would be discussing this in secret, but none of us are proper company workers, right guys?" Isamu glanced around the table at his friends.

"Damn straight!" Takeshi cheered.

"True dat." Ryota agreed.

The others muttered or nodded agreement with a bit of pride in their eyes. They relished the fact that there was still something that set them apart from the legions of faceless people in suits that boarded the trains every morning.

"Who you got in mind, boss?" Mikio asked. He figured it was between Kenta and Ryota. After Isamu, they were probably the two smartest in the group. Kenta had a history of being a trickster, but he was good at getting other people to do things… so that might make him a good leader. Ryota was probably the smartest of all of them – even Isamu. But his interests were in machines more than people. He spent more time with the tech team and they encouraged his interests in the gadgets they had been putting together for these expeditions. Mikio reasoned that it would have to be Kenta.

"All right, I'll say it now." Isamu told them, "From now until the next mission, I want Kenta to be in charge of training. I want him on the mission and he'll be in charge unless he screws up royally and I have to step in."

"Me?" Kenta looked stunned. He had thought himself too much of a joker and his past…

"On our first mission out, you ran a con on Akio-san." Isamu told him straight, "At first I was pretty upset with you for falling back on your old ways. But, after I had a chance to think about it, I think it was brilliant. You didn't ask for too much and he really did get a benefit from it. On top of that, you got all the rest of us to play along. There was that little problem with the joke you played on Nagisa-chan and Hiroki, but if you can stop screwing around like that, I think you'll be a team leader that Tomoyo-sama can count on to bring everyone home."

"So then… there's only one spot for the rest of us to fight over." Takeshi said as he ground his fist into his palm. He may have sounded grim, but he was looking forward to a last-man-standing competition to see who would get the last spot.

"Why? Why do you have to fight over something like this?" Tomoyo asked them all. "Every time you go out… I hate it. There are so many things that can go wrong. While you're gone, I can't sleep… I can't even rest. And then, when you get back, I can finally rest a bit. But I know… I know that you will be going out there again in another four weeks."

The boys were all quiet now. Five years ago, none of them would have ever imagined that Sakagami Tomoyo would ever feel like that – for them. Her concerns and worry over them was evident in her words and on the pained look in her face. Both her fists were clenched in frustration until she felt Isamu's big hand close over hers.

"Ahm real sorry dat it worries ya so much." Iwao said as softly as his gruff voice could, "But weis all real careful jus like ya showed us. An honestly Tomoyo-sama, dis is da mos excitin ting I ever done. If I lives to be a hunnert years old, it'll be dees days I will always remembers as da bes time of mah life."

"But if you die…" Tomoyo tried to counter.

"Den I die." Iwao said complacently, "Everbody dies sooner or later. But not everbody gets to die doin somthin dey like."

"If it will make you feel any better, I think I've had a breakthrough on understanding the time correlation elements." Kotomi offered.

"Does that make it any safer?" Isamu asked.

"Yes. It means that I should have control over exactly when you get transitioned to the other world. For the next test, I will attempt to place you in the other world thirty minutes before the bakery opens on the same day that it is here."

"That means… we won't have to carry all that extra gear with us." Takeshi was happy with that possibility. He had not been thrilled with having to lug all that extra stuff that they mostly didn't need… and the trouble of finding safe places to hide it.

"I dunno. It's better to have it and not need it." Hiroki had been on the first expedition when they almost froze while waiting for the pick-up from the baseball field.

"That's good thinking, Hiroki-san." Melissa said with a sly smile, "But the real meaning to Kotomi-chan's breakthrough should make you very happy."

"Me?" Hiroki looked puzzled.

"Oh yes. This means she is one step closer to being able to send you back to the first world you went to." Melissa asked, "Does that make you happy?"

She need not have asked. Even Kotomi's poor social skills could see the gorilla-like Hiroki's delight.


	20. Chapter 20 - Silver Linings

**Sunday evening, October 10 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

"Just a minute, Sugisaka." Tomoya called out to her.

The day was over and she was fetching her coat and bag for the walk home. When she turned around, she saw that Koumura was also there. The kids were all in bed. Kyou, Kotomi, Yuki, and Melissa were in the bath, and it was her cousin's day off. So it was just the three of them still up.

"Yes?" she replied. She returned Tomoya's gaze, but it was hard. She had only been working there a few weeks and it was as decent a place as her cousin had told her. Everyone there had treated her with respect and had been nothing but nice. The children and their friends were nice too. But something always felt wrong to Sugisaka. Something in the back of her mind told her not to get too comfortable, because it wouldn't last. The real natures of these people would eventually come out and she would find out that all the smiles and pleasantries were as fake as the friendship. Or it would be a true dream of a place, but they would sooner or later, decide that she wasn't needed… wasn't a good fit… needed to downsize… _Times are tough. I'm sure you understand._ She had heard the words before. So, when the Butler and the Master decide to have a talk with you at the end of the work day… it's usually not a good thing. For Sugisaka, it had _never_ been a good thing.

"Do you need to go home tonight?" Tomoya asked her.

"Um…" So that was it. _He ha_ _s_ _two beauties like Kotomi and Kyou but he want_ _s_ _to play around with the maid?_ _No, that can't be right. Koumura-san would never put up with that. He wouldn't work here if he knew something like that was going on. But then… what does Tomoya-sama want of me?_

"Tomorrow is the Autumn Sports Day at the children's Elementary School. I was hoping you could help with the preparations early tomorrow morning, and you may be needed to go along to help look after the younger children." Koumura told her.

"We have a spare room," Tomoya said earnestly, "It shares a bath with Koumura-san, if that is okay."

Tomoya could not know how his words hurt Sugisaka. He had never thought much of the little house that his father had worked so hard to provide for him while he was growing up. Other kids that he had visited had always had a home that was as good or better than the old place where he was raised. Perhaps the reason he thought so little of it was from the memories of his later childhood when his father had become an alcoholic and the home was always mired in foul smells and squalor. But the house itself had been better than a lot of others. There were homes that were much older, in poorer shape, and simply more primitive than his childhood home.

Such was the home of Sugisaka and her family. It was never a place of squalor, but it was certainly smaller and more primitive. The kitchen was a stove, a sink, and a table It did not have central air conditioning or heating. It did not have a hot water heater. And, it did not have a bath. Sugisaka, her mother, her aunt, and her cousin all slept in the same room and shared a single sink and old Japanese style toilet. Whenever the little family had earned enough money for a small personal luxury, they would walk to the public baths about a kilometer from their house. On those special occasions they would rejoice in the lavishness of being able to soak in the wonderful hot water for a little while.

In the last two weeks, Sugisaka had been involved in cleaning every part of the Ichinose house. In that time, she had seen every room, closet, and pantry. She had seen houses that were bigger and more impressive, but never one that was owned by people that she had gone to school with. And now Tomoya, the school delinquent, was living in such opulence and offering her a room for the night.

A room with an actual bed in it.

A room she wouldn't have to share with anyone else.

A room that connected to a bath with running hot water. She had seen that bathroom too. Although it was nowhere near as opulent as the small swimming pool on the second floor that Kotomi called a bath, it was certainly large enough for a reasonable sized adult to relax in.

And Tomoya had the gall to sound apologetic that it was a shared bath with another room. Sugisaka wanted to ball up her fists and glare at him for his insult. She wanted to scream out her rage and leave this place in the wake of a slammed door. But she knew better. She would swallow her anger and keep up her poker-face. There was no sense in upsetting her employer now, when this job had otherwise been so very nice.

"Sugisaka, you should not make the mistake of assuming that my interpersonal skills are as bad as Kotomi's." Tomoya cautioned the girl.

"Huh?" Sugisaka was taken aback by Tomoya. She had always though him to be so clueless, but he was clearly reading something about her.

"My dear girl," old Koumura said pitifully, "Both Tomoya-sama and Kyou-sama are adept at reading body language. As am I. You may think you are keeping your feelings well bottled up. But to us, you might as well be stamping your feet and screaming."

"No…" Sugisaka wasn't saying that they were lying. But she had thought she was pretty good at hiding her feelings. To find out now that he… that both of them had been able to read her since the first day… was unsettling to say the least. Panicking, she stuttered, "I… I should leave."

"No. That is exactly what you should _not_ do." Tomoya could see the apprehension rising in Sugisaka's eyes. Youhei had told him what his experience with her in the study was like, on the day of her interview. He had warned Tomoya about Sugisaka's _trouble_ signs. Tomoya knew that he was seeing them now and he knew that he had to get out in front of them before she reached fight-or-flight. "There is something that is bothering you and keeping you from enjoying your work here. That is troublesome. I have impressionable small children here and I don't like the idea of having someone in the house that is not happy to be here."

"Oh… of course." Sugisaka's fear transformed from being socially uncomfortable to being afraid of losing her job.

"I don't want to lose you. The boys have accepted you, and you are one of the few adults that Michiko has ever taken to. That is important for her development, and it means a lot to me." Tomoya paused to let that sink in, then he said firmly to her, "I want you to stay here tonight. Tomorrow will be a very busy day and I want you to do your best to help watch over the little ones at the elementary school's Sports Day. But, when that is over, you are going to have a chat with us about what is bothering you and we are going to work it out. Understood?"

"Yes, Okazaki-sama." Sugisaka replied. Then she asked, "The talk… will be with you and Koumura-san?"

"Kyou-chan will probably be there as well. She too has noticed your… mood." Tomoya told her.

"Oh." she now wished she had run out of the house earlier. It had been many years since that incident behind the gym building, but that Fujibayashi girl still scared her all the way to her bones. The only one that seemed to have any real control over her was… "Kotomi-sama won't be there?"

"Probably not. She has a lot of work to do on her project and… she doesn't notice things like this." Tomoya tried to be assuring that not everyone had seen through her stoic persona.

.

Upstairs in the big bath, the four girls were relaxing once again. The weekend hadn't been all that taxing, but they were all aware of how stressful the next day would be. Sure, it would be the kids that would be wearing themselves out with their competitions, but cheering them on from the sidelines could be pretty tough on a parent too.

"Hmmm?" Yuki taunted, "Melissa-chan looks deep in thought. Are you thinking about asking Takeo to go with you tomorrow?"

"Huh?" Kyou reacted to Yuki, "It's an elementary school field day, it's not a place for adults to go on dates."

"Why not?" Melissa asked Kyou, "Kotomi will be there with Tomoya. Why can't I have someone with me?"

"Tomoya and Kotomi are the parents of children at the school. It's appropriate that they would be there." Kyou replied.

"Then, are you saying that Yuki and I shouldn't go?" Melissa asked with a pout.

"What?! Of course you should go! You two are family and friends of the family." Kyou replied, but felt like she was sliding into a trap. There was more emotion in Melissa's voice, but this discussion had the feel of a Kotomi debate. And Kyou did not have a very good win-record with those.

"So, you're saying that Takeo isn't a friend of the family?" Melissa asked with an expression on her face that was just a little too innocent.

"Hey!" Kyou was trying to think of a good response to Melissa's little trap.

"What do you think, Kotomi-chan?" Yuki asked the silent genius who was currently reclined in the hot water and lazily staring up at the ceiling.

"I wonder what's bothering Sugisaka-chan?" Kotomi said aloud.

"Huh?" all three girls were mildly stunned and looked at Kotomi as if they didn't believe the words they had just heard.

"Kotomi-chan… what did you notice about Sugisaka-chan?" Yuki asked her.

"Huh?" Kotomi asked as she lowered her head and looked back at the three that were still gazing at her. "I haven't noticed anything unusual about Sugisaka-chan. Why do you ask?"

"You just said that you were wondering what's bothering Sugisaka-chan." Melissa reminded her.

"Oh, I didn't notice anything about her, but Tomoya-kun and Kyou-chan have been acting a bit strange. It is as if they are disappointed or frustrated. I have watched their actions and reactions and it seems that their strange behavior happens during or after being engaged with Sugisaka-chan. Her work seems satisfactory so I can only deduce that Sugisaka-chan is disturbed about something and Tomoya-kun and Kyou-chan have noticed it." Kotomi looked to Kyou to confirm or deny her conclusion.

"That's impressive!" Melissa blurted out.

"What?" Yuki asked.

"Kotomi-chan still has difficulty reading other people unless they are very familiar to her, so she developed the skill to understand less familiar people through the reactions of the people that she is close to." Melissa then turned to Kyou and asked, "Well, was she right?"

"Y...yes. Tomoya and Koumura are downstairs now, talking to Sugisaka to find out what is bothering her." Kyou answered Melissa.

"Yes!" Melissa made a victorious fist pump.

"Kotomi-chan, does that mean that you can read all of us that well now?" Yuki asked.

"No… Right now I am only confident about using my observations of Tomoya-kun and Kyou-chan." Kotomi admitted.

"Of course! Eventually, she would have the skill to read strangers through casual friends, but for now it would have to be only the people that she is intimately close to."

"In..ti..mate..ly?" Kyou repeated the word as her face blushed a hot pink color.

"Melissa-chan, I don't think that is the word you meant to use." Yuki tried to say something to save Kyou.

"Huh? My Japanese is not the best so you may be right. Please explain." Melissa asked of Yuki.

"Well, in English, the nature of the word may be a bit vague, but in Japanese it means something more… uh… romantic and uh… erotic." Yuki stumbled through her explanation while trying to be careful not to cause Kyou any more embarrassment.

"So, like… people that have kissed and explored each other's bodies in a sensual way?" Melissa asked.

"Um… yeah." Yuki answered Melissa but her eyes were on Kyou and her deepening blush.

"Okay, then I had it right. That was exactly what I was meaning to say." Melissa smiled with the knowledge that she hadn't made a linguistic mistake.

Yuki put the palm of her hand over her face and gently shook her head. _Are all geniuses like this? They can be so obtuse and say exactly the wrong thing so bluntly._ While she wondered about her friends, she heard more evidence of her genius friend's cluelessness as Melissa finally noticed Kyou's blush.

"Omygosh! Kyou-chan, are you okay? I think the heat is getting to you. You're so red!"

.

 **Monday morning, October 11 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

With a class of only thirteen students, it was too small to compete against the other classes. Even if it had been larger, it would have been difficult to compete with their students spread over six different grades. Instead, the kids from Kyou's class were allowed to participate with the regular classes. Most of the older kids went back to the classes that they had come from. Kyou had worked with the Kindergarten and first grade teachers to help with getting those teachers to accept her five youngest students. Maiko was not happy about being split up from the classmates she knew, but she did what she was told when she saw that Shuichi and Shuji had accepted their room assignment.

.

Shuichi and Shuji thanked the teacher that was letting them participate with their class and dutifully put on the bright yellow scrimmage vests that would identify them with their adoptive class. In the course of the past several months, they had met a few kids from other classes, but not many. As they approached the group of kids wearing the similar yellow vests, they looked for anyone they might know.

"Who are you? You're not in my class!" an abrasive boy yelled down at them. He had been sitting on a low wall and jumped down to confront the two boys wearing his classes colors. Being one of the tallest boys in his class, he was a bit shocked when he stood before them and had to look up to see their eyes. At 128 and 125 centimeters, the Okazaki boys were more than a dozen centimeters taller than the average first grader. When most of the kids in the school saw them, it was assumed that they were in fourth grade. So it was somewhat shocking to these first graders to see such big kids suddenly joining them.

"Shut up!" a girl's voice cried out and the boy was suddenly pushed to the ground by a girl that was almost as tall as Shuji. "Sensei said we would have two more boys for Sport's Day. Baka!"

"Hi, I'm Shuichi and this is my brother Shuji." Shuichi tried to make their introductions to the girl, as well as the rest of the students wearing the similar yellow vests, but the girl turned out to be as abrasive as the boy she had pushed down.

"I don't care! I'm the princess of this class and I'm going to win all the races, so you better remember that!" the girl shouted at them and stormed off.

"Are you really in first grade?" another boy asked.

"Well… sort-of. Our classroom doesn't really have grades." Shuichi said.

"But we already finished Kindergarten, so we should be in first grade with you guys, right?" Shuji asked.

"I guess, but…" the boy was about to ask why they were so big but the teacher made an announcement just then.

"All right everyone, get into pairs for the three-legged race!"

.

"I keep forgetting how big they are for their age." Kotomi said as she watched her little boys laughing and cheering with several of the other children wearing the yellow vests. She knew that the first grade kids she was comparing her sons with were actually about a year older. The only reason Shuichi and Shuji were in first grade was due to the different school year where they had gone to Kindergarten. Still, knowing that her kids were in the ninety-fifth growth percentile didn't have nearly the same impact as seeing them standing a head taller than all the other children that were close to the same age.

"Where is Michiko-chan?" Takeo asked while scanning the length of the field. Melissa was leaning against him while they watched the children compete in the different events. Sitting down, they almost looked like a normal couple. It was when they were standing or walking together that they drew stares. Seeing a shorter man with a taller woman was uncommon, but it certainly wasn't rare. But when that taller woman had ivory skin with long curly red hair bouncing with every step on her 177 centimeter frame, it made a lot of people look twice. At a little over ninety kilograms, she had lots of curves too – and two of her biggest curves were just below her neck. When she stopped dressing in baggy clothes and started wearing outfits that Kenta told her would get Takeo's attention, she got everyone's attention. Even Tomoya was surprised, and he had known her for years.

"Michiko-chan is not yet old enough to be a student at this school." Kotomi replied to Takeo.

"Oh… uh… right." Takeo fumbled for words while Melissa giggled.

"You know Kyou is going to ask why the two of you are here. You don't have any kids at this school." Tomoya commented.

"Tomoya-san!" Takeo was a tough guy. It had been a long time since someone called him a virgin and walked away with all their teeth still in their mouth. But, while it was true that there had been a long string of women whose faces and names were now forgotten, he had never had a _girlfriend_. In fact, Melissa was the first woman that had ever lasted more than a few days with him. She was the first woman he had gone on a date with – at least a date that was more than just a pretext for a make-out session. Other than his mother, she was the first woman that he actually cared about. Melissa was introducing him to a lot of firsts… and he wasn't always comfortable in these new situations.

"Not _yet_ they don't." Kenta said with a playful insinuation. Without a date, he had even less reason to be here. But he had recently been sticking pretty close to Isamu and Tomoyo – and both of them were here together as well.

"Kenta!" Takeo blushed a little harder but had a little more threat in his voice than the pure surprise when he had called out to Tomoya.

"Hmmm… perhaps this is practice for when we do have an elementary schooler." Melissa slyly suggested while drawing circles on his pants leg with her fingertip.

"Melissa-chan!" Takeo's blush was evident even on his deeply tanned skin. He wasn't the type that usually got embarrassed, but Melissa had just dragged him into the deep end of his pool of inexperience.

"All right guys, that's enough." Isamu said quietly but firmly, "We're here to support Kyou-chan's class and cheer on Shuichi-kun, Shuji-kun, and Maiko-chan. Let's not do something stupid that will get Kyou-chan mad at us."

There was a brief moment of silence as each thought about the ramifications of upsetting Kyou. Even tough guys like Kenta and Takeo didn't want to take that chance. Of course the rumors that she could devour your soul were just urban legends… but she was deadly accurate with a dictionary.

"To answer your question," Tomoyo said to Takeo, "Michiko-chan is playing under the tree behind us with Yoichi-kun and Yasuo-kun."

"Oh. Thank you Tomoyo-sama." Takeo turned to see Sugisaka standing nearby while the three youngest kids were playing with Fuko under the shade of the evergreen branches.

.

When the games broke for lunch, the kids were allowed to eat with their relatives who had come to watch them. Maiko sat with her father, Yusuke – but her mother, Kouko had to work at the high school and couldn't make it. Kyou arrived with Shuichi and Shuji as well as the fifth grade boy and one of the second grade girls from her class. Those two also had parents that were not able to get away from work for the day.

"Okāsan! Okāsan!" the two boys clamored for Kotomi's attention. "Did you see us during the three legged race? Did you see us in the tug of war?"

"Yes, I did! You both performed superbly. Have you been practicing for this?" Kotomi asked her excited sons.

"Uh huh, Yuki-san and Kyou-mama have been teaching us." Shuji answered as he took a seat in Kotomi's lap.

"They are both real good teachers." Shuichi agreed as he sat in Kyou's lap. But his expression changed to shock and he stood back up quickly to apologize, "I'm sorry sensei! I forgot we were still at school and I shouldn't call you that."

"Wait… sensei is your mother?" Huyu, the fifth grade boy asked. He pointed at the purple haired woman currently holding Shuji and said, "I though she was your mother!"

Both Shuichi and Shuji looked as if they had just made a terrible mistake.

"How old are you, child?" Kotomi asked the confused boy.

"Uh… I'll be eleven years old soon." Huyu replied.

"Then you are old enough to understand what I am going to tell you. There are many kinds of mothers in the world. Besides good ones and bad ones, there are genetic mothers, adoptive mothers, god-mothers, and dorm mothers. Kyou-chan and I are _both_ the mothers of the Okazaki children." Kotomi told him.

"Oh…" Huyu didn't know what a _genetic mother_ was, but he had heard of the rest before. So he asked, "What kind of mother is sensei?"

"She is a good mother. I believe… she is the best mother." Kotomi answered without hesitation.

"Kotomi…" Kyou gasped at Kotomi. She had heard Kotomi say such things in privacy, but never had she been so open about it before. And here… it was very open. Kotomi hadn't spoken softly and they were surrounded by other parents, students, and teachers.

"Okāsan! We think you're the best too!" Shuji said as he wrapped his little arms up around his mother's neck and smiled up at her.

"Am… am I in trouble?" Shuichi looked remorseful as he faced his Kyou-mama. He knew that he had broken one of her rules and from the strange look on Huyu's face, he knew that he had revealed a secret that his mother had not wanted anyone at the school to know.

"Shuichi-kun?" Kyou was still stunned from Kotomi's announcement and didn't understand why her son looked so glum. _He looks like he just broke something valuable and irreplaceable. What… what is he saying?_

"I know you didn't want anyone to know we were your sons. I'm sorry I broke the rules. Please don't hate me… I didn't mean to do it." Shuichi's mind was sharp. Except for Japanese language and literature, he was performing many grade levels ahead of his age. But he was still only six and a half years old, and complexities like school politics were beyond his comprehension. So he had done as his Kyou-mama had asked him with his limited understanding… even if it had hurt him inside. Despite the tears gathering around his eyes, he tried to explain himself, "It's so hard not to call you Kyou-mama in class. It's hard to remember that you don't want us to be your children at school."

"WHAT?" Kyou was stunned again but, unlike the sensation she got from Kotomi's reveal, this wasn't a pleasant feeling at all. She felt as if a mule had kicked her in the chest – her heart stopped and all the air had been squeezed out of her lungs. She could see the pain in her little boy's countenance and it made her sick. _What have I done? How could I have_ _said_ _something so callus and not have noticed? How long has he been hurting like this? Since… since we started at this school and I gave them the rules? I made him feel terrible like this for… four months?_ _This isn't what I meant! I never wanted to hurt my boys!_ _NO!_

"No Shuichi, that's not right!" Kyou grabbed the young boy with the steel blue hair and pulled him into a fierce hug. "I only made those rules because I wanted you to be in my class. I didn't think the school would allow it if they knew. I do love you. I love you so much! Please believe that your Kyou-mama loves you!"

"I love you too!" Shuichi wrapped his arms around Kyou and squeezed with all the power his six year old body could muster.

Huyu watched in amazement. He had never suspected that his sensei was the mother of the Okazaki boys. For a moment he was a little jealous. But that moment passed when pre-adolescent reason set in and he thought about it with the mind of a ten year old: If his mother and teacher were the same person, he would never be able to get away from either of them. His teacher would be with him at home and his mother would be with him all through school. Aside from that, he would rather run away or die than be publicly held and cried on while his mother went on and on about how much she loved him. Just the thought of that happening in front of his classmates was sickening. He was thinking of doing something to try and save his friend, Shuichi from further embarrassment, when he heard a lot of siren like sounds.

"ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!"

Kotomi, Tomoya, Melissa, Tomoyo, Isamu, Kenta, and Takeo all reached for their cell phones. Despite having put their phones on vibrate mode before coming to the school event, the alert was blasting out at each phone's maximum volume. Kyou looked up and was about to chastise them when she saw that Yuki's phone was also blaring out as well.

"Kyou-mama, I think your phone is going off too." Shuichi pulled himself away from his mother's hug and pointed at the flashing screen of Kyou's cell phone.

"Huh, but I put it on vibrate?" Kyou silenced the phone with the push of a button. Before she could read the message on her screen, Tomoya was reading out the urgent message that was on all their phones.

"Imminent thunderstorm. Baseball sized hail is possible. Take cover immediately."

"Yuki!" Kyou called out as she got to her feet with Shuichi still in her arms.

"I'll get the announcement out!" Yuki called out as she athletically sprang into action. Her lithe body jumped completely over a picnicking family as she darted to the judges tent where the school's principal, and the microphone would be.

Looking around as they gathered themselves up, they saw a lot of other parents and teacher's looking at them disdainfully for letting their phones interrupt everyone's family lunch. It suddenly occurred to them that their group had been the only ones to get the broadcast.

"Why didn't anyone else get the warning?" Kyou wondered aloud.

"I requested that we be put on a special warning list due to Kotomi's project. There is a hyper-accurate weather analysis system that the prefecture is trying out. It is still considered experimental, so this warning may not…" Tomoya's explanation was cut short by an announcement by the school principal over the loudspeakers.

"May I have your attention, please! There is a good chance that we are about to have a thunderstorm with baseball sized hail. Please gather up your things and make your way into the school building as quickly and safely as possible."

.

The rain was brief, but it was very heavy while it was falling on the school and the surrounding area. As the experimental system had predicted, there was hail too. Luckily, none of the chunks of ice were as large as a baseball, but there were plenty that were larger than a golf ball. From the windows of Kyou's classroom, the parents and students had watched as the sudden weather destroyed the event tents and scaffolds that hadn't been taken down.

Huyu was wishing that he had been allowed to go to his original classroom while they waited out the storm. Just as Kyou-sensei had told him after the summer break, his former classmates no longer thought of him as a dummy and some of them had recently asked him for help with their homework… in the subjects that he excelled in. But Kyou-sensei had denied his request and… her logic had been sound: The regular classrooms had more students and, with the addition of all their associated parents and guests, there would be no room for anyone else. He understood the reasoning but still would rather be with other kids his age during Sports Day. He was lost in thought for a while. Thinking about the friends he might have again, while staring at the rivulets of rain water sluicing through the grass. His reverie was disturbed when he felt someone bump into his arm. The brief contact had snapped him out of his daze and he looked up to see a girl that was from his original class. He couldn't remember her name but he did recall how much she picked on him… for being stupid.

"Nakajima-san, do you like… do you like this class?" she asked him quietly. Her gaze were focused on the rain outside the window and her eyes were turned away so that she wasn't even looking at his reflection in the glass.

 _What do you care? You're just happy the_ _'_ _stupid kid_ _'_ _is out of your classroom! Why are you here? Did you come all the way down to my classroom so you could call me stupid in front of my new class too?_ He wanted to yell at her. He wanted to demand her reason for being in _his_ classroom. Part of him wanted to hit her and keep on hitting her until the embarrassment from being called _stupid_ in front of all his friends… finally went away. But Kyou-sensei wouldn't like that. Neither would Yuki-sensei. He wouldn't hit her. And, he wouldn't yell at her either. But that didn't mean he had to talk to her. He turned to simply walk away from her, but there was someone blocking his path.

"Huyu-kun, piggy-back!" Maiko-chan demanded.

It wasn't the first time the little Kindergartner had asked him to do this. It was one of the few things that she came to him for – rather than her favorites Shuichi and Shuji. With her blue eyes and her curly red-brown hair, she had always been too cute for him to deny. This wasn't a good time though, and he really wanted to get away from _that_ girl.

"Maiko-chan, I…" he was going to plead out, but the little girl was insistent.

"Hurry, I want to see the rain better!" Maiko-chan squealed.

"All right, climb on." Huyu said as he crouched down for her. After she was securely perched on his back, he returned to his place at the window before remembering that he was trying to get away from his cruel former classmate.

"It's not raining as hard as it was a while ago." Maiko commented after watching for a bit.

"No. It looks like it will pass soon." Huyu agreed.

"Huyu-kun, who is that girl?" Maiko-chan asked. She didn't point or even look at the girl when she asked the question. But it was obvious who she was referring to.

"She's a girl from my old class." Huyu replied. He didn't look at her either, but he knew exactly who Maiko-chan was talking about. In his peripheral vision, he could see that she was still looking away from him.

"Do you like her?" Maiko-chan asked with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

The girl said nothing but seemed to stiffen a bit when Maiko asked her question.

"No." Huyu said simply. His fists tightened up in rage when he though about the ridicule he had been subjected to, because of her.

The stiffness in the girl was gone and her shoulders now slumped a bit.

"Why not?" Maiko tried to sound innocent when she asked the question, but anyone that knew her would know that she was up to something.

"She…" Huyu tried to think of the worst thing he could say about this girl that Maiko would understand and it came to him instantly, "she is a bully."

"What?" the girl finally reacted to him. She was now staring at him, but he was still looking out the window. But, on top of her former classmate, the little girl with the red-brown curls was glaring down at her with her icy blue eyes.

"Did she hit you?" Maiko-chan asked.

"No." Huyu answered.

"Then, how was she a bully?" Maiko-chan asked another question that kept him thinking about the awful times when everyone was laughing at him.

"Not all bully's hit with their fists." Huyu barely controlled his anger enough to answer Maiko's question. But once he began, the words just started pouring out, "She picked on me because of my math grades. She said I was stupid. She made fun of me in front of my class… in front of my friends. Everyone stopped talking to me… because of her."

"I… I wasn't the only one!" the girl tried to defend herself. But she realized how hollow the excuse was as soon as the words had left her mouth. Part of her wanted to ask for forgiveness, but he still wouldn't even look at her.

"Because of her, I lost all my friends. I didn't want to come to school any more. I wanted to just give up. Because of her… I wished I was dead." Huyu said without emotion. His hands unclenched and he felt better for having said aloud something that had been bothering him for a long time. He finally turned to look at her and what he saw shocked him.

He had expected to see her glaring back at him or looking triumphant that she had been able to impact him so thoroughly. Instead, her eyes were full of tears. She was shaking, and her face was pale as if she had just heard some terrible news. She tried to say something but her jaw was trembling so much that all that came out were some grunts and squeaks. Finally, it was too much for her and she ran out of the room with her hand over her wet eyes.

"Was she always a crybaby?" Maiko-chan asked.

"No… I only ever remember her being mean." Huyu replied in some surprise.

"Hey, what happened with that girl that just ran out of the room?" Yuki asked.

"She was a bully from Huyu-kun's old class." Maiko-chan answered.

"She was a bully?" Yuki asked in surprise.

"Yeah. She used to torment me because I was stupid in math." Huyu explained, then cried out when a little fist hit him on the head, "Ow!"

"Huyu-kun is _not_ stupid!" Maiko-chan insisted.

"Heh… so there is such a thing as karma after all." Yuki chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Maiko-chan asked.

"Her parents say that she is being bullied in her class for much the same reason." Yuki then turned to Huyu and told him as she walked off to rejoin the group of parents gathered around Kyou, "She will be joining you in our class starting the next spring."

"Huyu-kun." Maiko sounded as if she were an imperial princess about to issue an edict.

"Yes, Maiko-chan?" Huyu responded.

"You are not allowed to like that girl until she gets on her knees and says she's sorry to you." Maiko demanded.

"Yes, your majesty." Huyu said in mock seriousness. _Don't worry about that ever happening, Maiko-chan. Kneeling, sitting, or standing… that girl would never ask for my forgiveness. And it's just as well. I don't think I could ever forgive her anyway._

 _._

 **Sunday evening, October 17th – Ichinose residence**

* * *

"Okazaki-san, I came over as soon as I could but… are you sure this isn't something that can't wait until tomorrow?" the principal of Aoki Elementary School sounded a bit put out that the summons from the Ichinose house came on his only day off. Sure, he was supposed to have Saturdays off and let his assistant handle things on her own, but there was always so much to do.

"I'm sorry about the timing, but we have a couple of guests that you should meet and you won't have the opportunity after tonight… unless you make a very good impression." Tomoya told him as he guided the puzzled man into the house.

"I'm sure they are very likable people…" the principal was going to try once more to beg off this evening, but Tomoya cut in,

"Actually, they're not. But they are very powerful." Tomoya's voice dropped as a bit of warning to the older man that he should tread lightly with these special visitors.

"I see. Very well then." the Principal was aware that the Okazaki's knew the town's mayor and chief of police, so perhaps this would be relevant to him after all. As he came into the big living room, he recognized the mayor and that Sakagami woman who seemed to be getting herself involved in a great many things. But there were a few people he did not know as well.

"Gentlemen, this is the Principal of the school where Fujibayashi Kyou is teaching her special program. He has done everything in his power to assist with the success of the program and, as we have already shown you – the program has been extremely successful." Tomoya made the first introduction.

"So far." an older man with a full head of gray hair added to Tomoya's boastful statement.

"This is the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology." Tomoya sounded less than thrilled when he announced the irritating man.

"Ah, Minister!" the Principal suddenly recognized the man and bowed in deference. After all, it was the MEXT who funded school programs, and decided which schools should be renovated… and which ones should be closed. With the declining population in Japan, there had been many more closings than renovations or openings.

"I am just his traveling companion." the other older man in the room said. He was bald, and a little heavier than the skinny Minister. But his face was like a happy cherub and he sounded much friendlier.

"Don't let him fool you," Tomoya warned, "He is the Secretary of the New Komeito party."

"S… Secretary." the Principal bowed again.

"So this is it? You've heard that we are consolidating Elementary schools in the area and you've come to beg for this school to be saved?" the Minister sneered.

"Oh…" This was not the first time that the Principal had heard of the possible school closing. His teachers had heard the rumor too and many of them were nervous about losing their jobs, should it be their school that got selected for the ax. For a moment, he wondered if Okazaki-san had invited him here to beg for his job.

"Not at all. In fact, we would like you to consider our proposal to close down Aoki Elementary School, effective at the ending of the current school year." Tomoya said as he waved to Sugisaka to hand out the bound proposals that he had prepared.

"WHAT?" Kyou and the Principal both gaped at Tomoya as if he had lost his mind and betrayed them.

"This intrigues me." the smiling Secretary said without bothering to open the somewhat thick prospectus that the young lady had just handed him. "Can you sum up the proposal for me? My eyesight isn't what it used to be."

"Very well." Tomoya said, "We want you to turn Aoki Elementary School over to us. We also want to retain the Principal and most of his staff. This will allow for the growth that we predict for the Fujibayashi Education Program."

"What about the teachers?" the Principal asked. He blanched at the idea of telling all of his faculty that they were losing their jobs, but he would be keeping his.

"Ah yes," Tomoya patted the copy of the proposal that he had in his hand, "We would like to scout out teachers from Aoki as well as the other four elementary schools in the area for teachers that would work in the Fujibayashi Education Program."

"So, you want to cherry-pick the best teachers from the region for your pet project?" the MEXT sounded ready to object on that point alone.

"Actually no." Kyou found her voice when she realized what Tomoya was planning. It was audacious and far grander than the scope of her own plan, but she could see the incredible opportunity that this presented. "The teachers that are considered the best in the standardized program don't usually work out in… my program. So, we wouldn't be taking _those_ teachers. In fact, the _best teachers_ from Aoki could fill the slots of any teachers we take from other schools."

The Minister still looked dubious but Tomoya didn't have to take this any farther. The Secretary was sitting next to the Minister and he seemed as excited as the minister was obstinate.

"Intriguing!" the Secretary clapped his hands together as if this had all been a particularly entertaining performance just for him. "So, despite how much you absolutely loathe my dear friend here… you are willing to help him out by turning the bad news of a school closing into something positive by saving people's jobs and building up the good teacher ratio in the remaining schools. My goodness, he'll even get to claim some credit for sponsoring your program if it is successful! And if it isn't successful, he can close the whole thing down and show everyone how fiscally prudent he is! I must say, he would be an absolute fool not to jump at this offer."

"Secretary!" the Minister nearly spat.

"Minister?" the secretary laughed, "You should at least carefully read the nice proposal they bothered to put together for you. I'm sure it's full of technical brilliance. But from a purely political perspective, it would be career suicide not to accept this offer. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

"Of course I am… and I don't like being backed into a corner and handed a defeat." the Minister glowered.

"No no! You mustn't think of it that way. This is a victory for you! After you've had a night's rest at the hotel, you should wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and think of how you are going to announce this. Simply accepting this plan will make you look flexible. Endorsing such a plan will make you look benevolent and wise. But, as the MEXT, such decisions are up to you of course." the Secretary said. He then took a long sip of his wine while watching his old friend mull it over.

"Hotel… you'll be staying in town for a bit?" the Principal sounded hopeful. He was thinking of offering them a tour of the school, but he knew that there wasn't much to see that wasn't in any other elementary school.

"Yes, I have some meetings with the Mayor and this young man," the Secretary indicated Tomoya, "and then we will be up later that evening for the Ichinose Experiment."

"Ah yes, of course." the Principal had forgotten about the experiment. Having it mentioned brought back memories of putting his stamp of approval on Kyou's class outing so that her students could see it as well. He had never planned on attending the thing himself. Not until now. "Perhaps I will see you at the event then?"

"Perhaps!" the Secretary cheerfully agreed without any real desire to see the man again.

Tomoya wanted to gag at the blatant political posturing going on in his living room. But, he was a lawyer, so he figured that he should be able to put up with at least this much. And, these men did affect the projects of both Kotomi and Kyou. So, he vowed that he would do his best now… and wash himself thoroughly later.


	21. Chapter 21 - Ryota's First Time

**Monday evening, October 18 - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

This had become a familiar scene to a lot of the neighbors that lived around the park. The four trucks with their strange looking machines were taking up their positions on the streets that bordered the park. Dozens of people in lab coats were milling around the trucks – cranking the feet down that would stabilize the bed of the truck, taking measurements, and hooking up the power couplings that these particle accelerators would need to do their magic. Others were helping to erect the pergolas and setting up the barricade ropes. The members of the recovery team were busy setting up the four portable hot tubs and changing tents. There was less of a sense of urgency with their task since their part of the process wouldn't be for at least another thirty hours. Still, with Fujibayashi Ryou's suggestions, they would be set up and ready. The recovery team would continue to man their posts until Kotomi could give them a more refined time for the exploration team's return.

Sunohara and the police had already arrived and were figuring out the most effective way to perform their crowd control function without being in the way too much. Fortunately, none of Youhei's worst case scenario's had played out… yet. The spectators had been orderly and it had all become more of an entertainment event than a demonstration. But this time there would be kids there, and Youhei wasn't taking any chances. He had a few of his officers stationed in a place where they would be able to watch over the children until they got back to their tent at the end of the show. And then of course, he had a few officers in their parade uniforms to be there as an honor guard for the visiting dignitaries.

 _At least it's not the heat of the summer any more and those guys won't be melting in their uniforms but dammit Okazaki, did you have to start inviting dignitaries? Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it is for us cops when we have V.I.P.s show up?_ Out loud he shouted, "BAKA!"

"Sir?" one of the nearby officers flinched when the short detective vented his frustration. Most of the officers were taller than him, and almost all were older than him, but none of them doubted his position. He had come home to serve in the local police force after doing well at the academy. As an officer, he had performed brilliantly and had passed his detective exam in record time. When he was tasked with organizing this once-a-month science in the park thing, he had insisted that all the officers were fairly compensated and asked only for volunteers. Some of the older officers had worried that he had risen through the ranks a little too quickly, but not any more. Even though he hadn't spent that much time as a uniform officer, he still remembered his roots and treated all the detail cops fairly.

"Ah, it's nothing." Youhei waved off the concern. "I just wish we had a few more uniforms to patrol the back areas and the streets around the park. But with these V.I.P.s here…"

"Do you really think something is going to happen tonight?" the officer asked him.

"No. In fact I'm pretty sure nothing will happen that we couldn't take care of." Youhei sighed.

"Then… why are you so worried?" the officer asked again.

"I… used to be a scheming delinquent. I was pretty good at being bad. So, when I look at this place, I think of all the ways I could stir up some trouble and then I try to figure out how to stop myself using you guys."

"So, you think you could get something past all of us?" the officer asked with a challenging grin.

"Easily, but that's not because you're not good cops. You're spread way too thin and you haven't had this place under surveillance day and night for a week. A schemer like me could have already done the damage and is just waiting for the fun to start." Youhei stated without sounding like he was bragging.

"You were that good, huh? So, you never got caught?" the officer accepted Youhei's reasoning for why he could defeat all of them, but it still sounded like haughtiness from the short detective.

"Oh no. I never got away with it. There was a class rep that caught me every time." Youhei laughed.

"But, if you got caught…" the officer didn't think this sounded like such a big deal any more.

"That class rep caught me… but only after I had successfully pulled off a prank. We don't have that luxury on this job. With all the sciency stuff that's going on here, somebody's prank could result in crime scenes and death certificates."

"Ah!" the officer only then realized his shortsightedness. Sunohara was right. This was no simple detail after all. They would all have to be observant and vigilant. "I'm sorry Sunohara-sama. I underestimated the seriousness of this detail."

"Ha! The only reason you didn't think of it is because you are a fundamentally good person. You have always been a good person and that is something I really admire about you. So, don't beat yourself up about this, okay?" Sunohara cheered up the officer that he had known since he came back to this town to be a cop. This was the older officer that had kindly taken the green young academy graduate and patiently trained him to be a good cop. Now, Sunohara outranked his old supervisor, but he never forgot the kindness and patience that the older man had shown him when he was a rookie.

"If you say so." the officer still felt a little embarrassed at his gaffe.

"I do say so." Youhei said confidently, "Now lets take a walk and check on the others. While we're out, I'll point out some of the pranks a former delinquent like me could dream up."

"Yes!" the older man fell into step with the short detective as they headed first out to the streets. _You're damn lucky you're already married Sunohara. Rising star like you are, half the cops in the prefecture would be pushing their daughters on you… including me._

.

In the midst of all this activity, Mikio and Takeo were setting up an additional pergola near the children's playground. This one was fitted with heavy curtains that could enclose the whole structure in case of inclement weather. And, it was also big enough that everyone in the class would be able to sleep inside on the raised floor, instead of the ground outside. This was to be their surprise gift to Kyou-san, Yuki-san, and the students from their class. All of Tomoyo's boys had contributed to buy the materials but with only two of them assembling it, they worried that it might not be ready in time.

The four exploration team members were in their own pergola and were supposed to be resting, but that was easier said than done. Sitting next to Tomoyo, Isamu seemed to be relaxed… but he was the only one. Iwao was pacing back and forth across the width of the pergola. He looked like a lively puppy that had been put on a chain that was much too short. Hiroki was watching Iwao's constant pacing and exercising his own frustration by crushing tennis balls in his massive hands. Ryota was at the other end of the pergola talking to a few members of the tech team and was thus – far too excited to be resting.

"I wanna go help wit da kids tent." Iwao grouched aloud. His nervous energy was about to bubble over but _the rules_ were that you were supposed to be well rested before a mission since you would be away and need to be alert for a full twenty-four hours. Tomoyo had drilled that into them several times already and he knew it on an intellectual level, but it was very hard for someone like Iwao to force himself to relax.

 _You know the rules…_ Isamu was about to explain it to his hard-headed friend once more, but Tomoyo spoke up before he could discipline his friend.

"Iwao… do you think you can help them without tiring yourself out too much?" Tomoyo asked.

"Whadayamean?" Iwao blinked. Tomoyo-sama was usually pretty strict about _the rules_ but it sounded like she was considering letting him go help.

"No running around excessively. No heavy lifting. Can you do that?" she asked.

"Yeah! I can do dat." he promised.

"All right. But remember that you need to be conserving your strength. The lives of your friends could rely on you soon. You do not want to have to live with the regret that one of your friends died because you were too tired to focus." she said sternly.

"Y… yes, Tomoyo-sama." Iwao bowed before turning to leave. He had wanted to run to where his friends were setting things up, but Tomoyo-sama's warning about his greater responsibilities had gotten his attention like a slap in the face.

Iwao was no more than a dozen meters away when Hiroki turned to Tomoyo with a pleading look. Although he still said nothing, it was easy to see what he desperately wanted.

"Go ahead! Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't exert himself too much. And don't you exert yourself too much either!" Isamu warned the quiet, gorilla like man as he lurched up and quickly followed his friend.

Ryota was still at the other end of the pergola with the communication techs. They were going over the latest modifications to some of the devices in the hidden part of the toolboxes once more. Of all of Tomoyo's boys, Ryota was the most technical and had even contributed some idea's into the the devices' redesigns. Now that Ryota would finally be on a mission, the tech team had a few tests they wanted him to perform with their various devices, and they were reviewing the test processes with him. His eyes fairly glowed with the thrill of holding these new versions in his hands. Rapt in the discussion with the techs, he hadn't noticed that two of his companions had just left the pergola. Even if he had, there was very little chance that he would be asking to go work with the others.

"Is this okay? It's not like you to break the rules like that." Isamu asked Tomoyo as she sat back down next to him. And, he noticed, a little closer to him too.

"Not many people can force themselves to relax. It was pointless to keep him here." Tomoyo said in a defeated tone.

"You're worried." Isamu stated.

"Of course I'm worried. I worry every time you go out…" Tomoyo felt his hand close over hers, under the table.

"It seems different this time." Isamu pointed out that she seemed to be particularly on edge.

"Too many new things… and some things have already gone wrong. I just wish she would reschedule this for next month." Tomoyo leaned into Isamu's shoulder.

"Hey, Kenta and Takeshi couldn't help getting sick." Isamu had changed the roster of who would be going a few days ago when two of the selected team members came down with the flu. _But that shouldn't be too much of a concern. It's not like I'm replacing them with two guys who have never been on a mission before._

"I know. Hiroki and Iwao are both good. I'm more concerned with the equipment changes. Three of the four special tools are being replaced, and the communicator failed two of it's performance tests." Tomoyo fretted.

"It failed two out of what… thirty tests? And they fixed that stuff that didn't work right. Look, Ryota is over there with those tech boys now. He'll know if they got it right. You can trust him." Isamu tried to sound reassuring, but he also knew how excited Ryota could get with gadgets and toys. He was also the only member of the team that had never gone on a mission before. It was possible he would freeze up, when crunch time came. But it was unlikely; he had always been reliable both in the past as a gang member, and more recently as a construction worker.

"Just… promise me you'll come back safe." Tomoyo looked down at the table so he couldn't see her blush.

"I promise I'll bring us all back safe." Isamu gave her hand a squeeze for added emphasis.

"Good answer." Tomoyo wanted desperately to lean on his shoulder. More than that, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and demand that he not go on any more of these damned missions…

 _Wrap my arms around him… Eh?_

An unexpected wave of heat ran through the body of the powder blond… and seemed to settle in her face.

.

"What? What's going on here?" Kyou demanded. She and Yuki had just led their class from the gathering point in front of the Furukawa Bakery. They arrived at the spot where Kotomi had said they could set up their camp… only to find a pergola there. She could relocate her kids to another section of the park, but she didn't like the idea since she had already told the parents of her students exactly where they would be. Moving locations would necessitate contacting all the parents again, in addition to the image it would set up – that she just _didn't have it together_ , and was _a bit unreliable_.

"Ah, Kyou-san!" Mikio called out. He was busy with finishing part of the floor, but it was something that Iwao could handle. After handing his hammer over, he walked over to where she stood with all the kids and a few parents from her class.

"Mikio-san?" Kyou knew that the exploration team had a pergola near the site where they would be transitioning to the parallel world. She wondered why they would need one here too.

"We built this for you and your class!" Mikio smiled his best, but it was just at that moment when Hiroki stepped out of the pergola. There was an audible gasp from the parents and some of the children and several of them took a step back. Without turning to look, Mikio knew what had happened from all the blanched expressions on all the faces.

"Sorry." Hiroki mumbled and turned to leave.

"No no no! I'm glad you're here." Mikio kept his smile up and tried to be charming and disarming like Kenta would if he were here. Turning to the children he said, "This is one of the explorers that will be going to another world tonight. His name is Hiroki and he may look scary, but he is as kind as a teddy bear and very brave."

"Really?" one of the smaller girls asked.

"Really and truly. Now if you would like to ask any questions about what it is like to go to another world, you can ask both of us. But don't be surprised if I answer all of the questions because Hiroki is the quiet type."

"Does the other world have monsters?" the third grade boy asked. His fear of Hiroki's face had evaporated when he heard that the scary looking man was one of the explorers.

"No, no monsters or strange animals or anything like that. In fact the other worlds that we have been to have been a lot like this one. This park was here and the Furukawa Bakery was over there."

"That sounds boring." the boy was obviously disappointed in the answer to his question.

"Not at all. You see, we are looking for little changes that result from the choices that we make every day." Mikio was essentially telling them what Kotomi and Tomoyo had explained to him when they were making the offer to become explorers.

"What do you mean about choices?" the fourth grade girl asked.

"Hmm… let me see." Mikio looked around the little group and noticed the parents that were there. He had an idea and asked everyone, "Who has a parent here tonight?"

Shuichi, Shuji, and a few of the other children raised their hands. Mikio pointed to the lady that was holding the hand of a young girl whose hand was raised.

"Where did you meet your daughter's father?" he asked the surprised woman.

"Um… college." she stammered. She wasn't used to everyone looking at her and it had her off her usual responses or she would have said something about that being private information.

"Was that the only college you wanted to go to or were there others?" Mikio asked the rattled woman again.

"There were several." she replied and her senses were starting to come back to her. _Why does he need to know about my past anyway!_

"And, would you mind telling us why you picked that college?" Mikio could see that she was starting to get upset at all these questions, but if he was lucky – this would be the last one.

"It… it came down to a coin-flip if you must know." she said stiffly.

"Excellent! This is a perfect example." he said loudly so that everyone would look back at him. "Now lets say that she went to the college where she met her daughter's father – because the coin came up heads. In one of these parallel worlds that is very close to this one, we might find a world where everything is the same, except that coin flip came up tails. So, what would be the difference in that world?"

"So what? It just means that I would have gone to a different college." the woman still resented all the questions about her private life and was first to reply.

"That's true. You would have gone to a different college. You would not have met the man who would become the father of your daughter. And in that world, your daughter would not exist at all." Mikio explained just one of the effects of a seemingly minor decision.

"Okāsan!" the little girl sounded terrified.

"Wow!" most of the class was amazed and looked back at their friend and classmate as if she might suddenly disappear.

"That applies to every single one of you." Kyou was quick to point out. She wanted to avoid the rest of the class picking on the girl that might not exist. "All of your parents made choices that added together to bring you into this world. If they had made other choices, you may not have been born either."

Kyou's explanation amazed the older kids, but the younger ones were starting to get scared with all this talk of not existing. Fortunately, Yuki picked up on that and came to their rescue before the tears started to fall.

"That's why your birthday is so special!" she cheered. "It's not just that you are a year older. We are all so happy that you are here too! In fact, I think we should start having classroom birthday parties. What do you think?"

"Yay!" the children cheered.

 _Disaster averted._ Yuki's look silently said to Kyou.

 _Good job._ Kyou silently said back.

.

"Kotomi-chan." Melissa said to her friend who seemed to be looking at the same screen for longer than was necessary.

"Melissa-chan?" Kotomi shook herself and responded in the style of her verbal handshake.

"Is everything okay?" Melissa tried to keep the concern out of her voice, but Kotomi did seem more distracted than usual.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Kotomi looked up from her computer and turned the full attention of her purple eyes on her red headed friend.

"Well, Kyou-chan is with her class and Tomoya-kun is greeting the Minister and the Secretary. You only have me this time. Will I be enough?" Melissa knew that Kotomi had a hard time functioning around a lot of strangers if she didn't have Kyou or Tomoya or both of them with her. But she had been working with most of these interns, technicians, and scientists for several months now and they had thought that she would be able to get by this time with only Melissa's assistance.

"What do you think of Katsuro?" Kotomi seemed not to acknowledge Melissa's concern and asked a seemingly random question of her tall red haired friend.

"Katsuro? I… I am afraid I do not remember meeting a Katsuro." Melissa was racking her brain for all the people she had met since coming to Japan, but that name did not sound familiar.

"Not yet," Kotomi took Melissa's hand and placed it over her own belly, "but you will."

"Ah! I forgot that you are… um… nine weeks pregnant now? So, you like _Katsuro_ for a baby name? But what if it is a boy?" Melissa asked.

"Katsuro _is_ a boy's name." Kotomi blinked, "It means, victorious son."

"I'm sorry. I guess I still need a little help with Japanese names." Melissa apologized and added, "If it is going to be a boy, I thought you would go with _Saburo_ for the name."

"Yes… I used to want to have ten sons like the families in the folk-tales of old. I wanted to name them Ichiro through Juro, and I would name all my daughters after flowers." Kotomi sighed.

"You're kidding, right?" Melissa looked at Kotomi askance. She was having a hard time figuring out whether Kotomi was being serious or making a joke.

"Oh no, not at all. Japanese historical records show that before the modern era, there were many large families with ten sons. Some had even more." Kotomi's voice rose with enthusiasm.

"Well… that's true… sort of. Back in those days, infant and childbirth mortality were pretty high, so those big families… uh… well…" Melissa suddenly felt very awkward going into any more detail on this topic.

"I am well aware that the children in those big families had several different mothers, Melissa-chan." Kotomi said with a tilted head, "But with today's medical advancements and Kyou-chan's help…"

"STOP!" Melissa had a hand up in front of Kotomi's mouth. She had been warned by Tomoya that Kotomi's value system was on a whole different plane. "Kotomi-chan, please tell me that you are not planning on getting Kyou-chan pregnant."

"Oh?" Kotomi tilted her head in confusion and asked, "You don't think she would want to have Tomoya-kun's child?"

"No!" Melissa replied instantly, and then doubted her own answer just as instantly, "Well… maybe she would… But that's not the point!"

"I disagree." Kotomi still seemed too excited about this topic.

"You disagree?" Melissa didn't feel like she made any headway at convincing her purple haired friend.

"Melissa-chan, isn't Kyou-chan's desire to have Tomoya-kun's children exactly the point of our discussion?" Kotomi asked.

"No! No! No! No!" Melissa knew she would get lost in Kotomi's unnerving logic. It had happened before, so she already knew there was almost no chance of her winning – and barely a chance at being able to keep up. Instead, she decided to try the _derail_ option. "We can talk about that later. What we need to focus on now is tonight's experiment. Tell me about the waveforms and show me where we stand with relative time projections."

"Oh, of course! Tonight I will be shooting for an initial time displacement of plus four to plus six hours from our translation time, and an inter-dimensional time slip of less than…" Kotomi spoke while her hands flew over the keyboard of her laptop. Aside from the control panels that interfaced the four particle accelerators, the laptop screen came alive with datasets, charts, graphs, and waveforms.

Melissa was paying attention to Kotomi's excited chatter, but her smile was from the double-win she was counting for herself. She had, at the very least, postponed Kotomi from another one of her confounding and morality-challenging debates. And, she had managed to get the girl genius back on track for the current experiment that was scheduled to happen later in the evening.

.

Nagisa walked with Ryou as she checked and double checked all the arrangements and equipment that the recovery team had brought with them. They had been close for a long time and Nagisa knew when her lavender haired girlfriend was upset about something. When it came to hiding her inner turmoil, Ryou could do a much better job than she used to, but Nagisa could still tell. It was the little things that would give her away. She would eat less than usual and when she did, she would eat the things she didn't usually like without comment. She would go to bed later and want to sleep in more. She wouldn't talk as much, and she wouldn't smile as much either.

That was the part that got to Nagisa the most. A lot of people thought that Kyou and Ryou had the same face except for the eyes, but Nagisa knew that it wasn't true. Kyou had a nice smile, but Ryou's smile was something that transcended physical beauty. Hers was a truly wonderful smile and it was something that Nagisa noticed when it wasn't there. The chill of a winter day was not as harsh when Ryou smiled. Birds sang more sweetly and colors were more vibrant when she smiled. But Nagisa felt only a chill now. Ryou hadn't been wearing her smile for a while, and Nagisa's concern had turned into worry as the days turned into weeks. Summoning up her courage, she reached out to Ryou… but her courage faltered and she pulled back her hand at the last moment. But her resolve hadn't weakened so much that she had to remain silent.

"Ryou… are you okay?" Nagisa asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ryou responded but she didn't look up from the thermometer she was using to test the water in one of the hot tubs, "Why do you ask?"

"Are you upset with me?" Nagisa startled herself that she was able to say it. The question was dangerous. If the answer was _yes_ , and Nagisa didn't even know what she had done to upset her dearest friend… it could be the end of their relationship.

"Huh?" Ryou dropped the floating thermometer into the water and turned to look at Nagisa. Her mildly curious expression changed to one of shock when she saw the troubled look on Nagisa's face. "Nagisa, tell me what's wrong!"

"I… I was asking you what's wrong." Nagisa said. She was twisting her fingers in her hands, but more than anything she wanted to close the distance to Ryou and hold her in her loving arms. _But if I am the problem… if Ryou is upset with me, she would refuse… me._

"What do you mean?" Ryou was taken aback by Nagisa's seemingly sudden concern.

"You haven't smiled for a while. You've just seemed so… unhappy. I started wondering if… if I did something that upset you." Nagisa struggled to keep from crying as she laid her own heart bare to her girlfriend, "I still love you, Ryou. You mean everything to me. If I did something…"

"No!" Ryou stepped into Nagisa and wrapped her arms around her fidgeting girlfriend. "I'm sorry if I've been worrying you. Honestly Nagisa, if it wasn't for you, I would feel like a butterfly in a typhoon. I didn't know I was letting it show though."

"What is it?" Nagisa was hugely relieved to find out that Ryou's troubles did not stem from herself, but the fact that she was troubled at all was still worrisome. "Can I help?"

"I… I don't know. I'm just so worried about onee-chan. I don't believe she's thinking clearly and… I'm worried that she's going to be hurt." Ryou's hands grabbed fistfuls of Nagisa's coat as she let her frustration flow out.

"You're still worried about her relationship with Tomoya and Kotomi?" Nagisa sounded a bit bewildered. Nagisa didn't have any problem with their strange relationship but then, she wasn't the twin sister of one of them either.

"Yeah… I thought I was over it until I watched how she was with those kids. They really think of her as a mother and she thinks of them as her kids. But they're not hers. They will never be hers. They belong to Tomoya and Kotomi, not onee-chan!" Ryou was holding onto Nagisa tightly, her frustration at the boiling point. She didn't know how she expected her girlfriend to react to her ire, but she didn't expect the simple and innocent question.

"Why?" Nagisa asked.

"Huh? Why what?" Ryou needed Nagisa to clarify her question.

"I feel like I belong to you because I love you. Do you not feel like you belong to me?" Nagisa asked.

"Of course I do!" Ryou stammered, "Nagisa, this isn't about us, it's about…"

"Love." Nagisa held Ryou close and hoped she didn't hate her for disagreeing with something she obviously believed very strongly in. But Nagisa felt like she had to say it or Ryou would never smile again. "We are not related. And we can't be legally married in Japan either. But we feel very strongly that we belong to each other. And that's all because of love, right?"

"Yes…" Ryou wanted to argue, but this was Nagisa. She could hurt her sister's feelings because Kyou had always been strong. Except for that brief period after she almost killed Tomoya with a dictionary, she was always resilient and strong. But Nagisa was more like a flower. Ryou vividly remembered holding Nagisa's dying body in her arms and begging for a miracle.

"When you saw Kyou-chan and the Okazaki kids, did it look like she loved them?" Nagisa asked.

"Yes." Ryou admitted.

"I can see how much they love her too. All of them do. Even Kotomi-chan adores Kyou." Nagisa felt Ryou crumple a little.

"Do you really think so?" Ryou asked. She was no longer holding onto Nagisa with clenched fists and even leaned in a bit and rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Yup!" Nagisa related something her mother had told her recently, "Okāsan says that Kotomi-chan has the same expression on her face when she see's Kyou-chan – that I have when I see you."

"You think I'm being stupid, don't you?" Ryou asked. Now that Nagisa had pointed it out, she realized that she had seen that face on Kotomi too. And yes, just like her own beloved Nagisa, Kotomi did show the same expression of delight and… love. _But how can that be? She is married to Tomoya! How can she be so naive to bring in another woman into her house that loves her husband? She is so intelligent, so how can she be so unwise? Or, does she not understand the concept of jealousy at all?_

"I don't think you're stupid." Nagisa laughed and patted the back of Ryou's hair, "I just think you love your sister and you want to protect her from something you don't understand."

"Something I don't understand… so you _are_ saying I'm stupid." Ryou pouted.

"Ryou…" Nagisa smacked the back of Ryou's head. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to let her know that she was becoming a little too childish. It wasn't something Nagisa had to do often, but since they had gone off to college several years ago, it was something that Nagisa discovered would help her lavender haired girlfriend when she was getting too moody.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to be moody less and smile more." Ryou promised. However, despite her promise, she still worried that Kyou was just putting up a facade for Tomoya. _If she_ _doesn't truly love those kids and she's just doing this to keep Tomoya happy,_ _then the duplicity w_ _ill_ _be tearing her apart. A_ _nd a_ _fter all, how c_ _an_ _she really love the children of the woman that is married to the man that she loves?_ _How?_

.

 **Tuesday early morning, October 19 - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

The places where everyone stood were different this time. Tomoya was stuck with babysitting the Minister and the Secretary. Two of Sunohara's officers were there in their finest livery, but he wished that Sunohara was there himself instead of roaming about. Ryou and Nagisa stood with the recovery team. There shouldn't be much for them to do for a while, but they wanted to show that they were ready… just in case. Kyou was with her class of children from the school. Also with her were Yuki, Mikio, and Takeo. The presence of the two rough looking men concerned the cops that had been sent to keep an eye on the children, but the kids had formed a bit of an attachment with them. Aside from the younger kids climbing all over them like they were some kind of mobile playground equipment, the _nice men_ had built them a wonderful tent and told them all about being explorers.

With four of the boys going on the mission and the other two home with the flu, that left Tomoyo to stand with Kotomi, Melissa, and a couple of the lead techs at the perimeter rope. Long speeches were unnecessary now, but she still felt the urge to brief the only member of the team that hadn't yet had the experience.

"Ryota, you've seen the lights a couple of times now. And you've heard that they can pass right through you as well." Tomoyo was stating more than asking, but she saw that the tallest member of the team was full of excitement and ready to reply.

"Yes boss!" he was hanging off her every word, but at the same time, he couldn't wait to stand in the transition area and actually go to another world.

"And, when you get to the other world, all these tents will be gone, there won't be anyone in the baseball field stands, and the lights will be off. Don't be surprised about that, but you need to look for other differences too."

"Yes boss!" he said again.

Melissa held back a chuckle. He reminded her of a spirited puppy that was waiting for the ball to be thrown.

"All right," Tomoyo took a moment to look them all over and gave them their final orders, "no foolishness and no heroics. You are there to do a job and safely come home. You may not be able to complete the job, but you had better all come home!" She looked at each one of them in the eye as she drove in that last point.

"Yes boss!" all four of them replied. They all knew that she was worried about all of them, but no-one would complain if they noticed that she was a little more emotional when she met Isamu's eyes.

"The number one thing I want you to confirm is your arrival time and date." Kotomi told them, "I selected this waveform because it was very close to our own, so you should be arriving at the destination four to five hours from now."

"I thought the travel to the other universe was just a second or two?" Ryota looked confused.

"Yeah, it's quick. She means that if we left at midnight, it would be somewhere between 4AM and 6AM on the other world." Isamu explained.

"Right boss." Ryota said without thinking.

"Don't call me _boss_ , knucklehead!" Isamu slapped Ryota on the back of the head and pointed at Tomoyo, "She's the boss. She's the _only_ boss! You got that?"

"Yeah, I got it! Sorry." Ryota had gone over and over the rules that Tomoyo had laid out for them and did know them by heart. It's just that… he didn't understand that rule all that well. Sure, they were trying to look like a construction team and not at all like gangsters, but didn't construction workers have bosses too?

.

"What are they doing now?" the Secretary asked while he watched the four men that were dressed like typical construction workers, slowly walk to a particular spot in center field.

"They finished getting their last instructions from their Mission Leader as well as from Kotomi herself." Tomoya told both of the well dressed men standing next to him. They were already wearing their disposable glasses, although the Minister kept taking his off and trying to see if there was anything special about it's construction.

"Oh? Ichinose Kotomi is over there?" the Minister couldn't help using the insult by calling the brilliant scientist by her maiden name in front of her husband.

"She is." Tomoya heard the dig, but he was used to Kotomi using her maiden name in academic circles since her parents had been the forerunners of her research. But still, he needed to put the Minister in his place quickly or, like a misbehaving dog, his misconduct would just get worse. Or at least, that's what the Secretary had told him in private.

"Secretary, would you care to meet with Kotomi after the event?" Tomoya asked.

"Indeed I would! If nothing else but to congratulate such a remarkable young lady!" the Secretary beamed.

"I suppose I am included in this invitation." the Minister said in a bored voice while looking at his watch.

"No, I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea. You see, my wife has a problem with bullies." Tomoya said.

"Bullies? I haven't assaulted anyone!" the Minister demanded.

"Not just physical bullies. It extends to emotional bullies and verbal bullies as well." Tomoya said matter-of-factly.

"Is she afraid of them?" the Secretary asked.

"Yes." Tomoya told both of them, "But also, she despises them. In her opinion, bullies are the lowest form of life. They are a blight on humanity. In general, bullies should be crushed and destroyed, for the greater good of society."

"So… you're saying that you don't want to let me see your wife because I might frighten her?" the Minister was ready to argue that she should feel safe with all these police officers present.

"No Minister, I am doing this for you." Tomoya explained, "You are a natural bully. Surely you must know that by now. I don't believe you have the self control to keep your true nature hidden from Kotomi for very long. And, once she believes you to be a bully, she will have lost all respect – not only for your position, but for you as a human being as well."

"He's right, you know." the Secretary chuckled, "You know how much you enjoy lording your position and political power over other people. I'm your best friend and even I have to agree with this young man."

"But…" the Minister's spluttering objection would have to wait. Just at that moment, they heard an announcement over the loudspeaker system that had been set up.

"Transition will occur one minute from… now. At this time, all spectators should put on their special glasses. You won't see anything until the countdown gets to 10 seconds. Time to transition is now… 50 seconds."

"Oh, now this does sound very exciting! Where should I be watching?" the Secretary asked Tomoya.

"Over there." Tomoya pointed to the four men standing back to back in center field. "Keep your eyes on those men dressed like constructions workers."

"Forty seconds."

.

Across from where Tomoya and the dignitaries stood, Kyou's class was gathered in another viewing area. Students and adults all had their glasses on and were anxiously watching the four men in the middle of center field. Well… almost all of them were. Unfortunately, midnight was a little past many of the children's bed time and some of the younger ones were having trouble staying awake. A parent was already holding one sleeping child that just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Yuki had another one in her arms. The rest were in varying stages of sleepiness, but the sound of the countdown was having an invigorating effect on them.

"Thirty seconds."

"I don't see anything. Am I supposed to see something now?"

"Twenty seconds."

"You'll see something as soon as they get to ten seconds. Look for little lights on the ground around their feet." Mikio told the kids.

"Ten seconds."

"I still don't see…"

"Nine."

"Oh wait… I see em!"

"Eight."

"I see em too. There's more of them!"

"Seven."

"They're moving!"

"Six."

"Wow, there's even more of them!"

"Five."

"Look at them go!"

"Four."

"Ha! They look like crazy fireflies!"

"Three."

"Wow, they're moving really fast now!"

"Two."

"I can't see the men any more!"

"One."

"Where are they going? Where did they all go?"

"Zero. Transition complete."

"Sensei, what happened? Where did the lights go? Where did the men go?"

All of the students that were still awake and even the parents wanted to know what had just happened. Kyou was stunned that they were getting these questions at all. _The document that had been attached to the permission form had explained what was going on in some detail, so the parents should have known before they got here. But all of them should have known since some of the project workers and I just spent the last several hours talking about tonight's event. But, I suppose it's one thing to hear about it in a lecture and another thing entirely to see it with your own eyes. Hmm… I'd like to turn this into a learning experience, but they all look so sleepy…_

Kyou's thoughts and everyone asking questions were suddenly interrupted by a tense sounding voice on the speaker system.

"Emergency emergency emergency! Please clear the transit area."

"What's going on?" Kotomi asked after touching her communicator.

"We have decoded a distress signal from the Exploration team. They are requesting immediate pickup." the tech replied.

"Begin charging the homopolar generators." Kotomi said into her communicator as she opened her trusty notebook computer, "Send me the time deltas from the transmission and I will have the formula ready by the time the generators are fully charged."

"How soon?" Tomoyo was ashen faced as she asked the question. Nobody knew what kind of trouble the exploration team had run into. All Tomoyo, or anyone else knew – was that they had requested immediate pickup.

"Thirty minutes… probably. It will depend on the time deltas." Kotomi looked up from the laptop into Tomoyo's tear filled, blue eyes and told her, "We will all do our best to get them back, Tomoyo-chan. I promise you that."

* * *

 **Glossary**

Ichiro: first son

Juro: tenth son

Katsuro: victorious son

Saburo: third son

Shuichi: studious first son

Shuji: studious second son


	22. Chapter 22 - Chapter 1 revisited

**Tues** **day** **early mor** **ning, October 1** **9** **\- The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Thirty minutes later and hardly anyone had left the park. In fact, there were more people in the park now then there had been an hour ago. The delay in retrieving the explorers had given Ryou an opportunity to call in an additional ambulance and everyone with a cell phone had called their friends and put the news out on various social media.

Youhei had called for reinforcements but the late night shift wasn't staffed heavily and it would take a while before additional help could arrive. In his mind, he was trying to think through all the things that would need his attention between now and when this was over.

 _Crowd Control – this isn't that big of a park and the bleachers are already at capacity. We will need to keep people out of the restricted areas, and away from the trucks._

 _The Streets – it's not a large park and there is no lot for cars. All of the side streets are already full, so any additional cars will cause congestion. Also, we have to insure that one exit route stays clear for the ambulances._

He compared his list of officers and the growing responsibilities they now had to cover and realized that he had no choice. He needed additional manpower that he could count on, and he didn't have much time. Pulling his personal cell phone from his jacket pocket, he called the first number on his list and hoped he wasn't waking her up.

"Good morning, Youhei." the sweet voice answered at the first ring.

"I… I didn't wake you did I?" he asked apologetically.

"No. I'm not in bed." she assured him.

"Look… I hate to do this, but…" he knew he was asking a lot of her and her friends.

"You need help and you need it quick." she said.

"Yes…" he looked at his phone strangely but didn't ask. This wouldn't be the first time she had guessed his needs like this.

"Yeah… I'm gonna need…" he started to tell her what was going on but she answered his question preemptively… again.

"I'm at the Furukawa Bakery and I have fourteen of _the boys_ with me." she said in an almost purr.

"Fourteen?" Sunohara stopped in his tracks. _How did she know? How does she do that?_ He gestured to the older police sergeant that had been shadowing him to turn around and follow at a quick pace.

"Did you know… that something was going to go wrong tonight?" he asked her as he jogged back to the Furukawa Bakery at the end of the next block.

"No, it's just coincidence. The boys hadn't seen Mikio and Takeo in a while and they were planning on taking them out for some drinking and some fun tonight." she said sweetly.

"Well, at least a little luck is breaking our way." Youhei and the sergeant rounded the corner and could see the small crowd gathering in the light of the street lamp in front of the familiar bakery. And, out in front of all those rough looking men, his sweet and lovely Yukine. Her smile was a welcome sight on this troublesome night.

The sergeant saw the hoodlums that were gathered in the street and worried that they would have one more issue on their already full plate. He was about to call for backup when he noticed that Sunohara wasn't cautiously slowing down as he should in this situation. Glancing over at the shorter man, he could see that the young detective was actually smiling as they closed on the unruly looking group. _Smiling? Is he looking forward to getting into a fight or… does he know these roughs?_

The group opened up as Sunohara and the uniformed officer approached. They didn't mind working with Yukine's husband but this other officer was making them a little nervous. They kept their eyes on him while he and Sunohara ended up in the middle of their group. Some of them were thinking about backing away and slinking off into the darkness, but it was Yukine-sama that had asked them to stay, so they would at least hear Sunohara out.

"Did you guys see the show?" Youhei asked the group.

"Yeh, an we gots some questions about that." one of them answered while the others nodded their heads. It wasn't a friendly response either. It was clear that they wanted an explanation of why several of their friends just disappeared and what happened to them.

"To tell you the truth," Youhei looked up at the taller ruffian but spoke to him as if they were equals, "I don't understand all the sciency stuff either. All I know is, they are on another world right now and they're in trouble. And, to make sure they get back okay, I'm gonna need _your_ help."

"Sunohara…" the sergeant said cautiously.

"It can't be helped sarge. I need some no-nonsense manpower. I need them immediately, and I need people I can trust." Youhei said firmly.

Several of the toughs were startled by Youhei's assertion. Through Yukine, they had helped out Youhei before. All of them knew that they had indirectly helped the police in a number of things that they held mutual beliefs in. However, their part had never been acknowledged before. They were the invisible and secret resource that Youhei could call on when the situation demanded it. But to acknowledge that association could end his career. That would hurt Yukine-sama. They knew that too.

"All right then, it's time for you to take your wife for a walk." the older officer gave him a push out of the inner circle.

"Sarge?" Youhei asked as he turned back to his old senpai.

"You got your career, your marriage, and your kids to worry about. I can do this much." Turning to the crowd of toughs gathered around him he said, "If Detective Sunohara says he trusts you, then I do too. But I'll only say that, this one time. From now on, I don't know anything about any of you guys knowing any Detectives… or any other policemen except me. Got it?"

"I think I like you, sarge." the biggest of the toughs said through a lopsided smile. "So, what do you need us to do?"

"Can you boys run?" the older officer asked with a grin.

"Yeah, old man. We can run." the big tough replied with his own grin.

"Good." the sergeant took the microphone to his police radio from his lapel and spoke into it, "All teams, send one member to center field immediately. Confirm this order."

"Huh?" the big tough asked.

"Now, let's see if we can beat them there." he said as he took off running. A moment later, all the toughs were running after him.

That left Youhei standing with his wife and laughing.

"What's so funny?" Yukine asked.

"Those guys are in for a shock. They see an old man in a uniform and think they can take him, but he runs three marathons every year." Youhei said between gasps of laughter.

"Oh my!" Yukine smiled too, but Youhei took her hand and started leading her into the park at a fairly quick pace as well. "Where are we going?"

"To do the unthinkable." Youhei didn't sound pleased, but he did sound committed, "We're going to babysit Tomoya's guests. That will free up two more officers that sarge can use."

"You can also take the officers that are watching the kids." Yukine offered.

"I dunno…" Youhei thought about taking one, but taking both made him uncomfortable.

"They have Mikio, Takeo, and Kyou-chan with them." Yukine added.

"Oh? Well, that's different." He decided to send both officers in as well and would radio them as soon as he and his wife got to Tomoya and his guests.

.

"Sensei, what's happening? I'm scared." the comments came from several of the younger children. Most of them were clinging to Kyou's legs. Yuki was sitting on the ground nearby and had several of them in her lap and leaning on her too. Mikio and Takeo were with the older children and helping them stay strong. But even the men were concerned. Nothing like this had ever happened before and they were very worried about their friends… and about how Tomoyo-sama was handling this.

"Hey, you kids have all been through a fire drill at school, right?" Kyou asked them.

"Yes, sensei." they answered . _Fire Drill_ was a term they were familiar with and something they could grasp.

"Do you know what would happen if there was a real fire at the school?" Kyou had slipped back into teacher mode. Hearing her talk normally, like she did in the classroom was having a positive effect on the scared children.

"We would die!" one of the younger boys shouted.

"No! We would do exactly what we do in a fire drill and we would watch the fire department come and put the fire out." Kyou told them.

"Is the fire department coming?" "Are we going to see a firetruck?"

"No firetrucks are coming, but something similar is happening now. The alarm was sounded and now the emergency people are getting ready to help." Kyou could see that her explanation helped a little, but there were still several children that seemed terribly frightened. "It will be very exciting, but I understand if it is too scary for you. So, if anyone wants to go back to the tent and get in your sleeping bag now, Yuki-sensei will take you. But if you want to stay…"

"I want to stay." Shuichi and Shuji immediately said together.

"I'm staying." Nakajima Huyu insisted.

"I want to stay too!" Maiko took Shuichi and Shuji's hands as if to say that she wouldn't let anyone drag her away.

A few others decided to stay, but half the class had seen enough and wanted to go back to the safety of the tent. One of the children who was there with her parent begged to go home, but her mother refused to let her be that frightened.

 _I'll get you for this!_ Yuki mouthed the words to Kyou as she left with the frightened children and the few mothers.

"What's going to happen next?" Huyu asked after the others had left.

"I don't know." Mikio said with real concern, "This has never happened before."

Looking up at the tough looking Mikio, Huyu saw real worry in the man's face. Huyu already knew that the men that were in trouble were Mikio's friends, and he knew that this big strong man was scared that something bad may have happened to then. Without any words, Huyu reached up and took Mikio's hand. He knew he wasn't fearless, but being scared together wasn't as bad as being scared alone.

.

"How does it look now?" Tomoyo asked Kotomi again. Tomoyo's fists were clenching and unclenching. She wanted to beat a boulder into sand, but she knew she had to keep her composure. In this emergency, all the spectators were watching the little group around Kotomi now. She knew how important it was that no-one got the perception of panic, but it was so terribly hard not to scream.

"Three minutes." Kotomi flipped between several control panels on her rugged computer and confirmed it, "The generators will be fully charged and we will be ready to bring them back in two minutes and thirty seconds."

"Will that be enough time for you to get your program in?" Tomoyo fretted.

"Huh?" Kotomi looked up from her screen and told the platinum blond, "My retrieval program was in the firing computers fifteen minutes ago."

"Huh?" Tomoyo had to remind herself that she was dealing with one of the top minds in Japan… indeed, one of the top minds on the planet.

"Two minutes to retrieval, places everyone!" the loudspeaker announced.

.

"Four people carrying each stretcher. Two running alongside to keep them stable." Ryou was giving the recovery team their final orders before it was safe to run into center field to retrieve their prizes. "No mistakes! Stretcher one goes to hot-tub one! Stretcher two, where do you go?"

"Hot-tub two!" several voices around the stretcher with a big number two painted on it, cried out.

"Hot-tub three!" the next team shouted.

"Hot-tub four!" the last team shouted loudest as if it had turned into a cheering competition.

"Good, now…" Ryou was interrupted by the loudspeakers again.

"Ten seconds. Can we have quiet on the field for the emergency crews, please?"

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

"Zero. Recovery teams may enter the field!"

.

 **Tuesday early mor** **ning** **,** **October** **1** **9** **2010** **–** **Near the Furukawa Bakery** **(Alternate Universe 3)**

* * *

Hiroki looked around as soon as the glare from all the light baubles had left his eyes. Just as the boss had said, the spectators and technicians were all gone, leaving only the park behind. He had heard from the guys that went on the second expedition that the park had been in a more dilapidated state when they arrived, but this one looked exactly the same as the one he had just left… minus all the people and pergolas. And, except for it still looking like autumn, it looked a lot like the place where he had fallen in love with that world's Nagisa. There was a brief hope in his soul that this was the same place. He would give anything to see his Nagisa again.

Hiroki was sweeping his eyes across the park and trying to peer into the shadows to make sure nobody had seen them arrive or was still watching them. He had a weird feeling that they were being watched or that something weird was about to happen and it made him feel a little on edge. The other three were babbling on about something useless, but Hiroki didn't pay any attention until he heard Isamu say something that sounded like an order.

"C'mon, let's move." Isamu started heading for the bakery at a leisurely shuffle, "Iwao, keep your voice down and Ryota, keep looking for other changes… and don't worry about our ride."

"Right boss." Iwao said more quietly.

"Right boss." Ryota agreed as well.

"Dammit!" Isamu spun around and hissed at Iwao and Ryota, "You know the rules. Don't call anybody 'boss' and don't talk like you're in a gang!" He pointed to Hiroki and hissed, "And don't look so damn intimidating!"

"Uh, sorry b… Isamu, but this is just how I always look." Hiroki thought, _Jeez! What's he yelling at me for? I didn't call him boss._

"Yeah, I know…" Isamu sounded like he regretted yelling at Hiroki.

That made Hiroki feel a little better. He wasn't the kind of person that demanded an apology for every little thing – just the appearance would suffice for him.

"Anyways… just try to remember the rules and don't do anything to draw any attention." Isamu said the the group.

Hiroki saw it like it was in slow motion. Just as Isamu was about to turn around, the whole front of the bakery turned an incandescent white.

CHATHOOOOOOOOOM!

A bright flash lit up the whole park and all the houses and buildings around it as well. The pressure wave and the sound from the explosion broke windows and set off car alarms. The four men in the park had been blown down by the blast.

Hiroki opened his eyes and saw Ryota and Isamu saying something but there was no sound. He realized then that he couldn't hear. He had been around seriously loud noises before and knew that the hearing loss should be temporary… but there would be one hell of a headache. He could still see though, and it looked like the whole front of the bakery was missing and the place was on fire. _Nagisa!_

"Oh shit, it's the bakery!" Hiroki grunted as he took off toward the burning building.

As he closed on the bakery, he could feel the warmth of the flames on his face and even through his clothes. He couldn't yet hear something as delicate as the crackle of the flames, but something inside the place made a terrible crash as it fell into the inferno on the first floor. He heard that crash amidst the ringing in his ears and knew that a little bit of his hearing was already starting to come back. There was no time to celebrate though. He saw a body lying in the street close to the flames billowing out of the store front. Steeling himself against the heat, he dashed in, grabbed the man, and pulled him out a safe distance where he could lean against the light pole across the street.

"My grand-daughter… is inside." the man stammered.

Hiroki was stunned to see that this man, who was barely clinging to life, was Furukawa Akio.

"Akio-san, is anyone else home?" Hiroki asked.

"No." Akio grunted as he sank to the ground.

Hiroki looked at the front of the residence and it was now entirely engulfed in flames. There was no way he could get in through the front. He was about to ask, when Akio seemed to figure out what he was thinking.

"Door, around back… might be safe." Akio coughed and spattered blood on his hands. By the time he looked up, the big man had already run around the side of the bakery.

 _Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!_ Hiroki told himself, _This is Nagisa's daughter. I will save her. I will save her. I will save her!_ Hiroki didn't try the door knob, he simply kicked the door off it's hinges and ran into the smoke filled room. Akio had been right – the fire wasn't as bad back here, but it would be soon.

Fortunately, he had given into Isamu's demands whenever there was a social event at the Furukawa's house and he knew the place well. His first guess was that the little girl would be in Nagisa's old bedroom. The smoke was thick and it was hard to see, but he found his way there after running into only a few walls. When he opened the door, he was about to curse and try a different room when he saw the empty futon, but he heard a cough. In the corner of the room, she was balled up in a blanket as if she were hiding from scary things.

"Furukawa-san! I'm going to pick you up. We're getting out of here!" he yelled. But there was no response. There was also no reaction when he picked her up and wrapped her in the blanket. _She must be unconscious._

As he turned to leave the room, he saw flames. In the short time it had taken him to find Nagisa's daughter and pick her up, the fire had spread into the living room and was in the hallway too. A little down the hallway from Nagisa's door was the bathroom and it did not appear to be engulfed in flames just yet. Covering the little girl as best he could, he ran for the bathroom door and entered the still safe place.

The whole building made a sickening creaking, groaning sound and Hiroki knew that soon, there would be no safe place in this building. Thinking he could spray them down with the shower, his foot bumped into a large bucket that was almost full of water. Looking up, he could see a large water spot on the ceiling and guessed the bucket had been put there to catch water, dripping from a leaky pipe. Counting this as a blessing from the gods, he grasped the bucket and turned it up to pour the water down over both of them.

The water was painfully cold but invigorating. Then, taking a few breaths of less smoky air from the bathroom, he clutched the little girl tight to his chest and ran through the flames of the living room and out into the back yard. Looking back at the burning place, he quickly decided that even the back yard wouldn't be safe for much longer. The whole thing looked like it was going to collapse. Giving the inflamed structure a wide berth, Hiroki kept running until he was back in the park.

Having come back into the park from a little further down the street, he saw Isamu and Iwao over near Akio. He walked up behind them just as a loud crashing sound signaled the cave-in of the roof over the residence side of the structure. As soon as the crashing sounds ended, Hiroki heard the first wails of sirens in the distance. A wave of heat wafted out into the street and a million tiny glowing embers floated up into the night air like a plume of destructive fireflies.

"Oh shit." Isamu said as he looked into the fiery hell that used to be a bakery and a home.

"Bos… uh, Isamu. Ah don think nobody coulda lived through that." Iwao said softly.

"Yeah, it was a damn death trap." Isamu sounded upset.

"Lucky I got out when I did." Hiroki said from behind the two as he watched the building burn to the ground with them.

Isamu and Iwao slowly turned and looked at Hiroki. Their expressions went from surprise to relief to anger.

"Baka! I thought you were dead! How the hell did you get out of there?" Isamu demanded.

"The front was on fire real bad, so I went out the back." Hiroki said simply.

"The back wuddent on fire?" Iwao asked.

"Yeah, it was. Just not as bad." Hiroki's teeth were starting to chatter. Although there was some warmth from the burning building across the street, it was still a rather cool morning and he was still soaking wet.

"So, why are you wet and what's with the blanket?" Isamu asked.

"Oh yeah," Hiroki pulled back the blanket to reveal an unconscious little girl, "I dumped a bucket of water over us so the little girl wouldn't get burned."

"Son of a bitch!" Isamu gasped as Iwao whistled in amazement. They seemed more surprised than they should be at the sight of a little girl in a blanket.

"What?" Hiroki asked.

"That's an Ushio, you mutton-head! Don't you ever listen to the Boss?" Isamu yelled.

"Yeah I do," Hiroki said defensively, "but she don't look like Nagisa-san." The descriptions that he had heard from Kotomi-chan and Tomoya-kun was that this Ushio was supposed to look like a small version of Nagisa. _Since this girl doesn't look like Nagisa, she must be another daughter_ … was what Hiroki was thinking.

"Whadayamean?" Iwao rounded on the wet brute, "She looks zactly like Nagisa-san!"

"Hey boss! Hey boss!" Ryota was yelling from back in the park.

"Baka!" Isamu screamed at Ryota.

 _He really doesn't like being called 'boss' I guess. He looks really pissed._

"Thirty seconds!" Ryota yelled so all three of them could hear him, "Move your ass!"

"Shit!" all three of them said. Hiroki knew he could make it to the pickup spot in thirty seconds, but there was no way he was going to be able to retrieve his tool box and carry the girl. He turned to say something but saw that Iwao was carrying two tool boxes. _He might talk stupid, but he's always got my back._

"Boss," Iwao asked as he ran alongside Isamu, "What do we do wit da girl?"

"We take her." Isamu replied angrily.

"You sure?" Iwao asked, "The Boss is gonna have your ass for this."

"Yeah, maybe." Isamu grunted, "But I don't see that we got a choice."

"Seven… six…" Ryota was calling the numbers out as they gathered around his radio. He already had his visor on.

Hiroki didn't much care about the visor at this point. He was so cold that seeing all those little white lights would remind him of snow… and he didn't need that. But it looked like Ryota was trying to be helpful and, reaching over, he put Hiroki's visor over his eyes for him.

"… five… four…"

 _We're gonna be home soon and that's a good thing. But first, we're gonna have to go through that freezing place_ _._ Hiroki wasn't bothered by the cold as much as other people but it occurred to him that he hadn't been dripping wet last time either.

A scream from behind them drew Hiroki's attention. There seemed to be a commotion in the street next to the bakery. _Oh yeah, they probably just noticed Akio-san._

"… three… two…"

 _Here it comes… I hope the cold place doesn't turn me into an icicle!_

"… one… zero!"

.

For the eternity of a single moment, there was the sensation that they had just been dumped into freezing cold water.

.

 **Tues** **day** **early mor** **ning, October 1** **9** **\- The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Twenty four people carrying four stretchers dashed out to the middle of center field.

"GO! GO! GO!" Nagisa cheered on the recovery teams.

"Are you four ready?" Ryou turned and faced the four women in the wet suits that were waiting in the hot tubs.

"Yes, doctor!" they all replied.

"Good. Your _only_ responsibility is to keep their heads above the water. I will have others reaching into the tubs to check them for medical trauma's. Understand?"

"Yes, doctor!" they replied in unison again.

"They're on their way back!" Nagisa called out. Now that they had moved the tubs closer to center field, it didn't take nearly as long to fetch the exploration team members.

Ryou turned around to see the first of the teams had already closed half the distance back to the tubs. Two more teams were right behind them but the last team was still struggling to get their patient loaded.

Splash!

Isamu was the first to be dumped into the hot water, but they were much better at this than the last time. His face never went under the water and there were hands on him to hold him in place almost instantly. His eyes opened and he saw Ryou-chan standing over him. Next to her was… Nagisa-chan. He desperately tried to talk to them, but he was still frozen from the effects of the trip back. His jaw was shaking like he was standing naked in a blizzard. _But I have to tell them! They have to know about…_ Unable to speak and in desperation, he reached out of the water and grabbed Nagisa's arm.

"Isamu!" Ryou instinctively tried to protect her girlfriend and moved to pry his hand away, but Nagisa stopped her.

"I think… I think he's trying to tell me something." Nagisa said as she moved closer to Isamu's chattering teeth.

Splash! The second body hit the hot water and a quick look showed that it was Ryota this time.

"You two!" Ryou pointed to the two team members who had been tasked with steadying Ryota while he was carried back, "Go back to the field and see what you can do to assist the last team!"

"Yes, doctor!" As the two turned and ran off, Ryou moved to check on Ryota while Nagisa bent closer to try and hear what it was that Isamu was desperately trying to tell her.

.

 **Tues** **day** **early mor** **ning, October 1** **9** **-** **Ichinose Residence**

* * *

A compromise had been made at the Ichinose house. It seemed that the older kids and most of the adults would be out all night, but the youngest members of the families were just not old enough to join them. So, all parties had agreed that the only way to make it up to the little ones would be to let them have their own sleepover.

On the floor of the dojo in the Ichinose house, several children and a few adults were sleeping on futons or in little sleeping bags. Shuichi and Shuji's little sister Michiko was cuddled up next to her best friend, Sunohara Yoichi. Yoshino Maiko's little brother Yasuo, was cuddled up to his aunt Fuko. Sugisaka was asleep in an old fashioned rocking chair with a children's book still in her lap. She had stayed awake until she was sure that all the rest of them were down. A dim night-light barely illuminated the room, but it was enough that no-one should get stepped on if anyone woke up and needed a potty break.

But that wasn't the reason Fuko's eyes suddenly opened wide. She felt a presence. The presence was strong and felt like a lure to her heart. She hadn't felt anything like that before… at least, not that she could remember. It was almost as if…

"Someone's there!" Fuko gasped.

"Fuko smells something!" Fuko tried to sit up, but felt the weight of something holding her down. Looking down, she saw her nephew clinging to her the way a child clings to an adult that they trust to protect them.

 _Adult…_

The thought hit Fuko hard. She had wanted to be treated like an adult for so long… and recently that dream had been coming true. Her sister, Yukine, and Youhei had all trusted her with watching over their children on this night. Those were the people she most wanted to earn their approval and their… respect.

"I'm sure she is here to meet Fuko." Fuko said quietly and in a dejected tone. The pull was strong to leave this place and fly to the presence, but she had accepted responsibilities and made promises.

"It is a cute smell." Fuko buried her face in her nephew's hair and breathed deep. _Yasuo-kun, you have a cute smell too._

"She's sleeping there. She's waiting to be woken by someone." Fuko could tell that the presence was in a dream state, but that she wanted to be awake and she wanted to see the world around her. Somehow, Fuko believed that the presence would be awake soon, and when she was awake… wonderful things would happen.

"But, Fuko will stay here." she felt a single tear thread down her cheek from the pain of the self-denial. It had been a tough battle, but her desire to do the mature thing was strong now. Fuko had gotten to know _conviction_ and _willpower_ , and it was a bittersweet learning experience. She knew that they were, more often than not, used to do something that you _needed_ to do, rather than something that you _wanted_ to do.

 _Sometimes adulting really sucks._ Was Fuko's last thought before she fell back to sleep next to her small nephew.

.

 **Tues** **day** **early mor** **ning, October 1** **9** **\- The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Splash! Iwao was now being warmed by the hot water as well.

"Ush...i...o." Isamu was barely able to get it out. His body was thawing quickly, but not as fast as he desired.

"What?" Nagisa put her ear closer to his lips. She was so close, her auburn hair was on his face and in the water too.

"Hir...oki has Ush...io in blanket." he was finally able to say what he so desperately wanted to tell her.

"Ushio?" Nagisa seemed confused for a moment, then her eyes opened wide in alarm. She looked up and saw the last stretcher drawing near. She couldn't make it there in time but she saw someone that could and cried out, "Ryou! Ushio is in the blanket!"

The fourth stretcher crew was about to drop their cargo into the tub when they saw Fujibayashi Ryou suddenly jump into the tub as well. She grabbed at the ice encrusted blanket that Hiroki was clinging to and tried to pull it away.

"It's no use. We couldn't get him to let go of that blanket either." one of the stretcher team members told her.

"Hiroki-san, it's me. It's Ryou! You can let go now." she implored the frozen brute but either he could not hear her or his mind was too muddled from the cold to properly understand.

"Her?" several people wondered. A moment later, Nagisa was there too.

"Hiroki-san, this is Nagisa. You can let her go now. Ryou and I will take care of her, I promise. So, please let go!" she appealed to the frozen man on the stretcher.

There was a deep groan sound from the big man. Nagisa and Ryou were finally able to pull the blanket free. Chunks and shards of ice popped off the blanket as it opened up to reveal a small girl. Ryou caught the frozen child in her arms and immediately dropped into the warmth of the revitalizing water. A larger splash followed as the stretcher team finally lowered Hiroki into the tub with them.

"It's okay. I've got you." Ryou said as calmly as she could while she checked the child over. She could feel a weak pulse, but the girl wasn't breathing. Reacting instantly, she brought the child's face up to hers, checked the airway, and sealed her lips to the small blue ones.

"Ah!" Nagisa cried out. She knew what that meant. Little Ushio wasn't breathing. The urge to do something was strong, but she knew that of all the people whose arms that child could be in right now, Ryou had the best chance of saving her life. She cheered the little girl to fight on, "You're going to be okay! Please be okay!" then to her girlfriend she implored, "Ryou, please don't let her die!"

.

 **Wednesday morning, October 20 – Abe Private Hospital**

* * *

This was not the hospital where Ryou was doing her internship, but it was close and it had the most advanced maternity and pediatrics facilities in the city. That had been the deciding factor when the ambulance had pulled away with Ryou and the unresponsive child. Nagisa had wanted to come along too, but the ambulances had rules. The only reason Ryou was allowed to ride with the patient was her own medical credentials. That medical knowledge had come in handy as she watched the hospital staff put the little girl's small body through a number of tests as soon as they arrived at the hospital. Still unconscious, little Ushio lay still as she was examined, scanned, sampled, and hooked up to an intravenous drip. Initial reports showed that she was in generally good condition, but had recently been exposed to smoke inhalation and a bit of hypothermia. Things had slowed down a bit since then and Ryou had finally been able to get some rest. Thinking that Nagisa would be arriving soon, she had put off sleep, but the exhaustion had caught up with her.

The day after the exploration team returned was a perfect fall day. It was now a bright, sunny morning, and warm sunlight shone in through the nearby windows. Machines beeped while they kept track of Ushio's pulse and breathing while an enriched saline solution quietly dripped into the line that disappeared into a bandage around Ushio's left arm. Her chestnut hair was splashed across the white pillowcase. Her smoky clothes had been discarded and she was wearing a hospital gown festooned with rainbows and unicorns. White linen sheets covered her from the chest down. But most importantly, Ushio was not alone in this sterile and unfamiliar room.

Ryou sat in a chair next to the bed but her will to stay awake had long since left her. She was now leaning on the soft bed with her head of short lavender hair on the mattress next to the resting child's body. She awoke to the feel of someone stroking her hair. Her first thought was that Nagisa had arrived. It was a known affectation of Nagisa's that Ryou rather enjoyed. Whether in the bath, or on the couch, or in bed, Nagisa never tired of running her fingers through Ryou's lavender hair. With a contented smile, she looked up to see that it was Ushio that had been playing with her hair after all.

"I know you." Ushio said softly as if she wasn't quite sure if she was dreaming.

"Do you?" Ryou considered that to be highly unlikely… unless the Ryou in the alternate universe had also been good friends with the Nagisa there. "Who do you think I am?" Ryou asked.

"You're my Kindergarten teacher." Ushio said with a wan smile.

"Ushio-chan, how old are you?" Ryou thought she looked a bit young to be in school.

"I'm this many." she held up four fingers.

"I see. Isn't that a little young for you to already be in Kindergarten?" Ryou asked.

"I'll be in Kindergarten next year, but Akki took me to see my teacher… Don't you remember me?" Ushio seemed a bit sad that the teacher she met didn't know who she was now.

"Ah. Ushio-chan, do you know what twins are?" Ryou asked the little girl. After seeing Ushio shake her head she tried another question, "You know what sisters are?"

"Yup, but I don't have one." Ushio answered.

"Well, I have a sister that was born on the same day as me, so she is my twin sister." Ryou explained, "She looks a lot like me. Her face looks like my face and her hair looks like my hair… except it's longer. And she has purple eyes while I have blue eyes."

"Oh!" Ushio jumped a bit as she realized what all this meant. She remembered when she met her teacher that she was fascinated by those amazing purple eyes. They had sparkled, and yet seemed so sad at the same time. "You're not my teacher, are you?"

"No. My sister is a teacher. I am a doctor." Ryou said.

"Oh." Ushio sounded crestfallen. "I'm sorry I touched your hair."

"What?" it suddenly occurred to Ryou that to a child, it might seem like she was refusing their affection, "No, Ushio-chan! I'm not upset about that. I'm not upset about anything. I was happy when I woke up and saw you there."

"You were?" Ushio sounded happier, right up until she was shaken by a fit of coughing.

Ryou immediately moved to hold the child in her arms while she shook from the harsh chest spasms. She reached over to press the call button and noticed that little Ushio was holding onto her arm with both hands.

"Why?" she asked with tears in her eyes from the pain of the violent coughing fit.

"You were near a fire and you breathed in a lot of smoke. That is bad for your lungs, but you are very young and you should make a full recovery soon." Ryou told her.

"Huh?" Ushio didn't understand everything that was said.

"Oh… I forgot I was talking to a four year old. Sorry." Trying again, Ryou simplified it for the young girl, "You are a little sick right now but you should be okay soon."

"Oh… okay." Ushio yawned and seemed to relax in Ryou's arms. "Can I sleep now?"

"Yes, you can sleep all you want." Ryou was starting to climb off the bed but Ushio was still holding onto her arm.

"Will you hold me… please?" Ushio asked the purple haired doctor… the one that looked like her Kindergarten teacher.

"Yes, Ushio. I'll hold you as long as you want me to." Ryou had almost asked the little girl why. But then the answer was obvious to her in an instant. She had just been through a traumatic incident, she was sick, and there was no-one else around. _You need someone to comfort you and I guess I'm it… for now._ _I suppose I can be here for you until someone more suitable comes along._

Ushio was still tired from her ordeal and quickly fell asleep again. Ryou was tired as well and droopy eyes watched the cute little girl that was leaning against her and still holding onto her arm. A fleeting desire crossed her mind, but she instantly dismissed it as impossible. _It's a shame that this affection isn't real though, I could get used to a sweet girl like you…_


	23. Chapter 23 - Welcome Back

**Wednesday morning, October 20 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Tomoya was shocked at the turnout. He had invited just about everyone to this planning session, but he didn't think they would all show up. Well, he didn't invite the spectators or the school children, but he had invited just about everyone else.

Kotomi and Melissa wouldn't be able to make it to Tomoya's meeting. Kotomi was miserable about it, but she and all her project people had a mountain of data to work through. Tomoya hadn't thought it would be so bad considering the brief time that the Exploration Team had been away, but apparently the opposite was true. Since they had never done a quick recovery before, there were lots of new things to consider and analyze.

Kyou and Yuki would be involved in a meeting up at her school where they would be answering questions to curious, and potentially angry parents. So neither of them would be there either.

Ryou also wouldn't be there. Tomoya hadn't even told her about the meeting. From the moment they had discovered that the exploration team had brought back an Ushio, she had been concentrating all of her efforts on the health of the little girl. Everyone agreed that Ryou should be undisturbed while she worked at what she did best. Even Nagisa, who desperately wanted to see the little girl again, agreed that everyone should wait until Ryou said it was okay. And… no-one should see her until there was a plan. Ushio had already been through a very traumatic experience and didn't need a bunch of strangers pressing her with odd questions. So, Tomoya had demanded this meeting before anyone would be allowed to see Ushio.

It was a meeting to answer as many questions as they could, beforehand. And, a meeting to decide Ushio's future. It wasn't surprising to see all three of the Furukawa's there. Nor was Tomoya shocked to see Youhei and Yukine show up.

But that wasn't all. Kotomi's Godfather, Kobayashi Jun had arrived the previous day and was there to represent Kotomi's interests as well as answer any technical questions that might come up. The Minister and the Secretary had shown up at the appointed time as if it were any other important government function back in Tokyo. And, mingled with all these professionals and officials, Tomoyo and all of _her boys_ were there as well.

The safe return of the expedition party had spelled the end of Tomoyo's anxiousness and exhaustion had set in. Seated on the couch, she was leaning heavily on Isamu and her eyes were closed… but no-one suggested she was asleep. The fact that she actually was asleep was a blessing for Isamu. She had not yet blasted him for flagrantly disobeying the rules, but he knew the storm would come when she awoke from her much needed rest. Still, even if she wasn't awake to blame him - he knew that it was his decision that was causing all this concern now.

"This is an unbelievable situation. I don't know if there is any precedent for this anywhere in the world." Tomoya opened with that statement to let everyone know just what was ahead of them.

"I'm sorry!" Isamu said. He would have got down on the floor to express his regret for making the decision that was now causing so much trouble. But the movement would have awakened Tomoyo… "It was my call and if anyone is to be blamed…"

"Apologies? Blame?" the Secretary laughed the words so loudly, it almost sounded like he was shouting. Then, in a calmer volume but no less passion he turned on Isamu and his team with his trademark cherub-like smile and said, "My dear young man! What on Earth are you talking about? I for one see nothing here that warrants blame! Good heavens, you have done the impossible - you have all been party to a modern day miracle!"

"But…" Isamu was worried that the cheerful looking old man may not fully understand just how badly he had screwed up. But the Secretary had the stage now and center stage was a place that the Secretary of the New Komeito party was quite familiar with.

"You men went to another world, rescued a little girl from a burning building, brought her back and delivered her into the arms of medical professionals who have saved her precious life. I see nothing reprehensible here at all. Indeed, I would call you all heroes!" he declared.

"As some of you are well aware, the Secretary and I are in opposing political parties. We have different ideologies and do not often see eye to eye." the Minister looked around the room with his usual dour expression, "But on this matter, I am in complete agreement with him. I say now that I find no fault with any of your actions."

"Thank you gentlemen." Tomoya told the dignitaries. Then he turned to Isamu and said, "I don't find fault either. If I sounded like I was displeased with any of your decisions, I do apologize. I am only concerned about the legal disposition and bureaucratic circus that is sure to come."

"Legal… Are you worried about the child's citizenship? I'm sure we can get her on a family register in short order. I would be happy to affix my seal as a witness." the Secretary offered.

"Thank you, Secretary. But it's not that simple. You see, in the world where she came from, she was the daughter of Okazaki Tomoya and Furukawa Nagisa, both deceased. She was living with her maternal grandfather, Furukawa Akio – now, also deceased." Tomoya looked around the room to make sure everyone was following him before he continued, "According to what Isamu told us, he was aware that she had relatives in Hokkaido, but it did not sound like there had been much contact with them, if any. So, now that she is here, where does she go?"

"Simple." the Minister spoke up, "She stays with the maternal grandfather."

"But he's dead." Mikio pointed out.

"Is that man not the mirror of the grandfather that she had in her own universe?" the Minister gestured at Akio.

"Yes, he is." Sanae replied. She did not care for all this talk about Akio being dead, whether it was in another universe or not. But the swing of the conversation - that Ushio might be coming home to live with her and Akio, had got her very excited.

"Then, considering Japan's Protection of Children Act as well as other applicable laws, I see no reason for a change in her legal guardianship." the Minister stated.

"But, her parents are alive here." Youhei didn't mind the little girl living with someone as nice as Akio and Sanae, but he didn't like his friends, Tomoya and Nagisa being ignored either.

"Oh, I see!" the Secretary had been about to object to the Minister's conclusion too, but he realized the legal issue in time, "Her parents were declared dead in her universe. Parental rights cease to exist when that happens. So, since this child hasn't changed - only the world around her, the only guardian rights that apply would be those of Akio-san."

"But… they're not dead here!" Youhei was having a hard time wrapping his head around the legalese.

"True, but we were never her parents here either. So the only legal view that should be used would be from Ushio's perspective." Tomoya understood where the two older men were guiding them.

"Exactly! From the child's perspective, her parents were dead and will suddenly come back to life. But for either of them to exercise their parental rights, they will have to go through a similar legal struggle as if they had been declared dead and were suddenly back again." the Secretary looked sorrowfully at Tomoya and Nagisa but unabashedly winked at Akio.

Akio was in shock. He was suddenly the grandfather and guardian of a four year old girl. He turned to Sanae with a look of desperation, only to see a forced smile.

"Aki darling, if you don't hurry up and ask me to help you with raising our granddaughter, I'm going to set fire to the shredded remains of your favorite baseball glove." Sanae's voice still sounded sweet, if strained.

Several people laughed at the two Furukawa's antics Akio's response was drowned out, but it was obvious that he did just as she asked by the way her forced smile changed into a real, and very happy one.

"Having said that," Sanae looked up from her seat and wondered, "How will poor little Ushio take all of this? I do hope it won't be too upsetting for her."

"This could indeed be rather traumatizing." the Secretary seemed grim for only a moment before completely changing his position, "Ah, but she is only four years old, right? Children are amazingly resilient. From everything I've heard about the young lady, she may be confused for a little while, but I think she will be fine."

"I agree. Although, I think we should be careful about the way we introduce ourselves to her." Tomoya suggested.

"A sound idea!" the Secretary agreed. "So then, I suppose the question is - which one of you should visit her first."

"Second." Nagisa said.

"Pardon me?" the Secretary looked across at Nagisa.

"Ryou is with her now. So we need to see which of us will see her second." Nagisa explained.

"Yes, of course. But I was talking about family members." the Secretary said.

"So am I." Nagisa's fists clenched and she knew it would be embarrassing to say it, but she felt that she had to, "It may not have been the case in the world that she came from, but now that she's here - Ryou is just as much a family member to her as Kotomi is!"

"Not legally." the Minister sighed as if he was not happy to have said it. But then he added, "However, I do know what you mean and… I agree with your feelings completely."

"I regret having to pull out of the conversation without hearing what solution you all come up with, but the Minister and I have another engagement we must be off to. It was wonderful meeting you all!" The Secretary and Minister waved at everyone and shook a few hands but were soon gone like a breeze through an open house.

"I didn't really like them at first, but I have to say that I feel a bit more optimistic now." Youhei said.

"I only hope he's right about Ushio being resilient enough to handle all of this. I can't help but remember what Kotomi went through after she lost her parents." Kobayashi Jun said.

"Kotomi was older when that happened to her." Tomoya commented.

"And, Ushio won't be losing her parents. She'll be getting them back." Sanae said.

"Not really." Kobayashi Jun considered his words carefully before explaining his concern to them, "Since we are talking about the same people from parallel universe's it is true that Ushio is the biological daughter of Okazaki Tomoya and Furukawa Nagisa. But it stops there. In this universe, they did not fall in love and they did not have a child together. At best, Tomoya and Nagisa would be more like very close relatives that are acting like the parents she lost."

"Then, what would be the best thing for her?" Yukine asked.

"This kind of subject isn't really my forte." Kobayashi Jun admitted. "Back when I was trying to help Kotomi, I spoke with a number of professionals. Just going on what I remember from their advice, I would say that her best future would be in adoption."

"What?" Nagisa reacted. It was obvious that this was not what she wanted to hear.

"I notice that you didn't choose that option with Kotomi." Sanae pointed out. By her tone, it was also clear that she didn't like that option either.

"Kotomi was older and, at the time, I was convinced that pulling her out of that house would have destroyed her." Kobayashi Jun replied.

"Then… Ryou and I will adopt her!" Nagisa said. Rarely did Nagisa seem so forceful about anything and many of the people in the room were impressed with her surprising display of passion.

"I… thought about that." Tomoya now looked like he had to be the one to bear the bad news. "Nagisa-chan, I don't doubt your conviction. But are you sure this is something Ryou would want? She might not be able to accept… somebody else's child."

"Ryou…" Nagisa was about to defend her girlfriend, but she stopped in her tracks. Tomoya was right, and she knew it. Nagisa's hope turned to desperation as she considered Ryou's reaction. _No! Please don't let this be the thing that tears us apart!_

.

After only a little more debate, everyone agreed that Akio should be the next person to see Ushio. He was most familiar to her, even if she wasn't familiar to him. But none of them had counted on a line-jumper who wasn't there for the debate and whose grasp of logic was still developing.

.

 **Wednesday late morning, October 20 – Abe Private Hospital**

* * *

Fuko stared down at the hospital bed and felt her excitement welling up. Her lively brown eyes saw the familiar lavender haired Ryou, but she also saw someone else. Someone new! Her heart saw the little girl in infinitely more detail than human eyes could ever see. This Ushio had not had a charmed life to be sure. At only four years old, she was already familiar with losing loved ones and seeing the sadness and hardships that such loss created in those that were left behind. And yet, she was full of such love, hope, and energy that her body very nearly glowed in Fuko's vision.

Fuko was so taken with the radiance from Ushio that she hadn't noticed that Ryou had awoken and was looking at her. When she finally did, Ryou raised a single finger to her lips and made a sign for quiet.

"She's resting now. We should let her sleep." Ryou explained as Fuko moved closer to Ushio on the other side of the hospital bed.

"She's so cute!" Fuko whispered, barely able to contain her excitement. "Fuko can't wait for her to wake up!"

"Why?" Ryou hoped Fuko would continue to refrain from waking the child. The cough suppressant that was administered to her was strong and would make her sleepy, but Ryou didn't doubt Fuko's ability to wake someone up from even a drug induced sleep.

"Fuko knows that she will be fun!" Fuko chirped.

"No, Fuko. Her name is Ushio and it won't be any fun for her when she wakes up." Ryou said sadly.

"Why?" Fuko's attitude changed swiftly and she was on the verge of being cross with Ryou for suggesting that the little girl wouldn't be fun. She didn't know why, but somehow Fuko just knew that wasn't true.

"She came here from one of Kotomi's parallel worlds. In her world she was the daughter of Okazaki Tomoya and Nagisa, but both of her parents are dead there. Now, she is in a strange world and she is all alone." Ryou said. She hated to crush Fuko's high spirits, but the ikiryo needed to know the truth.

"That's stupid!" Fuko didn't accept Ryou's conclusion and she wasn't shy about letting her feelings be known, "Tomoya-kun and Nagisa-chan are alive here, so she _does_ have parents!"

"But Fuko, they're not her _real_ parents." Ryou tried to get the ikiryo to understand.

"What is a _real_ parent?" Fuko demanded, "Onee-sama was there for me when I was growing up. Yukine-chan's brother took care of her until he died. They were like parents to us!"

"No Fuko, those were siblings. That's different." Ryou could see that Fuko was getting very upset but another voice rose to challenge her beliefs.

"Ryou, you could not be more mistaken." Akio said from the doorway, "You know that I love you like a daughter, but we are not related by blood. Right?"

Y… yes, but…" Ryou started to respond but Akio wasn't finished yet.

"Are you saying that because Sanae and I aren't your real parents, we cannot love you like a daughter? Are you so ready to throw away our feelings?" Akio asked as he walked over to the hospital bed.

"NO!" Ryou had never considered how her viewpoint might hurt two people that she very dearly cherished.

"Ryou, Ryou, Ryou, when will you learn that blood ties don't make a parent." Akio said the words kindly and with as little reproof as possible. But he was firm in challenging her viewpoint nonetheless, "A blood relationship isn't meaningless, but it isn't everything either. Being a biological father or mother takes less than a minute, but being a _real_ _parent_ means that you're there for them through thick and thin. A _real_ _parent_ supports them even when it could be inconvenient. You need to let go of your fixation on what a mother or father is. Being a real parent takes more than a biological contribution. It takes commitment and love. That is what a mom or a dad is. More often than you may realize, when the biological parents are missing or useless, a child may find that love and commitment in a sibling, a teacher, a friend… anyone that is willing to become an adoptive parent. So don't discount the adoptive relationship. They may be the best parents of all. There is no requirement for them to do so, but they chose to do it anyway. They are that special kind of person who willingly inconveniences themselves to make sure that a child has the support they need to thrive. They are the ones that are there to share your joy in good times, but stick with you through the crushing despair of bad times as well.

"Akio-san…" Ryou looked up at the man now standing next to her. His words had battered and demolished her viewpoint, but his countenance was nothing but understanding, supporting, even… loving. The tears began to well up in her eyes as the full realization dawned on her. _Oh my God, what have I done! Onee-chan who has been by my side all my life and Akio and Sanae who have been so supportive of me these past several years. All I've done is hurt them all with my selfish opinions! I am the worst!_

"Akio-san, please… please forgive me!" Ryou pleaded as the tears fell. When he smiled and opened his arms, she fell into his embrace and cried into his chest, "I'm so sorry. I've been so stupid!"

"Of course I forgive you. Something like this won't change the way Sanae and I care about you. I told you that we love you like a daughter and we still do. And I'm sure Kyou-chan still loves you too." Akio caressed her hair as her tears soaked into her shirt.

"Onee-chan…" All of the harsh things she had said to her sister came back to her now. She had known how much it meant to Kyou that children would love her and feel safe around her. That had been Kyou's drive to become a Kindergarten teacher since she was in middle school. She had that now. Through Shuichi, Shuji, and Michiko, Kyou had proof that she wasn't a monster and that children could truly love her. And all Ryou had ever done was to try and tear that down.

"I know you have been struggling with the relationship she has with Tomoya and Kotomi. I think it is strange too, but that isn't the same thing as being wrong is it?" Akio said softly, "I also realize that it is rare that those kind of relationships last very long, but I think theirs is different. It probably only works out because Kotomi doesn't understand the concept of jealousy. As strange as it may seem, I have seen them with open eyes and I truly believe that both Tomoya and Kotomi love your sister with all their heart. And… I believe she loves them too."

"Strange…" Ryou repeated the word that he had used.

"It only seems that way because it goes against everything you know." Akio pushed her back from his chest and looked into her swollen and tear filled blue eyes, "Our culture used to be different, but now we are taught that only monogamous relationships can work. Although it is true in most cases, it is far from absolute. Romantic love can take many forms. Some transcend age. Some transcend gender. And some transcend the number of people in a relationship. I can tell you that I couldn't manage any of those myself, but just because I can't accept them for me, it does not make them any less valid. It doesn't matter if you, or even all of society may not understand or approve of certain forms of love… that doesn't make it wrong."

"Well… from a sociological perspective it does." Ryou wasn't really arguing with Akio, but she did want to point out the flaw in his otherwise eloquent argument.

"Well sure, from a sociological perspective." Akio said dismissively, but then proudly pointed out, "But my degree was in Theater! What do I care of the ridiculous value systems invented by religions or people in power, and foisted on the masses whether they want it or not!"

"AKKI!" Ushio shrieked in delight when she awoke to see her beloved grandfather in the room with her. He used to show her his drama voice when he wanted to make her laugh and it had been so long since he had done that. She was delighted to see him in such happy spirits once again.

"And now, my dear Ryou… behold the benefits of being a well trained actor." he told her as he separated himself from the lavender haired girl and stepped up next to the hospital bed. With a dramatic pose that must have been stolen from a Greek tragedy he said, "My darling and beloved Ushio! My heart doth beat madly as I gaze upon thy cheery visage! I beseech thee – yield upon thy ancient kindred a beatific smile and I will know such joy as no mortal man has ever known."

Ryou watched Ushio with concern as the little girl dissolved into giggles at the foolishness of her beloved grandfather. She was concerned that the added stress of laughter on her lungs could bring about another painful bout of coughing. But either the cough suppressing medicine was doing it's job, or she was past that danger now. In either case, it was good to see the little girl so happy.

Not so happy was the ikiryo on the other side of the hospital bed. In fact, poor Fuko looked crushed as she stared down at Ushio. Ryou watched the interaction for a few moments before she figured it out. Watching how Ushio's eyes tracked, she knew what the problem was now.

Ushio could not see Fuko.

.

 **Wednesday late morning, October 20 – Aoki Elementary School**

* * *

The shorter cherub looking man was able to keep up with the long strides of the taller, dour looking man as they strode down the corridors of the public elementary school. A woman at the front office had given them the directions to the classroom where the _special_ classes were. After she saw the offered credentials, she forgot all about making them a visitor badge or insisting on a guide. Now, she was wondering if anyone in the school still had a job.

As the two men rounded the last corner, they saw the school principal standing outside the door to the special classroom and fretting as loud voices echoed into the empty passageway. Both men could figure out what was going on inside that room now. Some of the parents would be expressing outrage and making demands. They would be threatening to go to the local board of education or worse if their grievances weren't met.

The MEXT never read those letters. He had a staff of four people that filtered them and decided which warranted actual investigation. However, they gave him the number of how many such letters they dealt with each week. It was always worse around exam time, but it was never less than a hundred.

"Principal?" the Minister said quietly as he and the Secretary came up behind the man.

"Minister!" the Principal had been so engrossed in listening in on the arguments inside the room that he hadn't heard the men approach.

"How is she holding up?" the Minister wanted to finish the sentence by adding, _without your assistance_. But his non-presence might have been something the Fujibayashi woman may have asked for. She did seem to be the capable sort.

"She's holding her own, but some of those parents… they have been trouble for all of my teachers." the Principal said.

"Very well then. If you would, please introduce me to the room. I have an announcement to make, and then the Secretary and I will be leaving for Tokyo." the Minister asked the Principal, but it was more like an order.

"Of course!" the Principal quickly stepped into the room and immediately drew the attention of several of the parents. It was as if they were just waiting for someone else to vent their frustrations upon. But the Principal didn't give them time, "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but we have some special visitors. May I introduce the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology."

A few of the parents were about to jump on the idiot of a Principal for making such a ridiculous joke, when the two well dressed men stepped into the room.

"Excellent. Fujibayashi-sensei and the Principal are both here." the Minister said as if he didn't already know. Then, mostly to Kyou he said, "I was hoping to make this announcement to both of you at the same time. As soon as I get back to Tokyo, I am putting my stamp on the paperwork to have this school closed down at the end of this school year. A month later, when the next school year begins, it will reopen as the Fujibayashi Alternative Education Program facility… or whatever name you come up with. You have a lot of work to do. Interviewing and hiring teachers in time for the school opening date will be tough. I want you to call my office directly if there are any problems that you think I can help with."

"Yes Minister." Kyou bowed after taking the offered card from the old man.

Turning to the Principal, the Minister said, "If you are willing to stay on, I would like to trust you with the administrative handling of the facility, but I want it clear from the beginning that Fujibayashi-sensei will have complete control of the program. She will have hire and fire authority over the teachers and she will have the final decision on which students may join the program and which ones can remain."

"I would like to assist Fujibayashi-sensei in any way that I can, and I have no objections to that arrangement." the Principal bowed.

"Well then, if there is nothing else…" the Minister was turning to leave when one of the parents called out.

"Minister! About that insane science experiment…"

"Yes, about that." the Minister turned and looked at all the parents with an expression between disgust and wrath. He didn't particularly care which one had bothered to speak up when he berated them all, "You're all a bunch of pathetic worms. In this day of declining birth rates, it is truly a shame that any of you reproduced. Insane science experiment indeed! I was there and I saw a modern miracle. I saw the best of Japanese technology, creativity, and willpower. And when things went wrong, I saw calm, cool, and capable people come up with solutions and save lives. And amidst all that, I saw several of the students in this class have the courage to see it all through. One of them was a Kindergarten aged girl. So, you will all understand that I have no sympathy at all for your mindless braying and whining. If I were in charge, I would eject every one of your children from the program and no amount of begging would change my mind. However, it may be that Fujibayashi-sensei has a kinder heart."

"Come now, Minister." the Secretary took the fuming man by the arm and led him out of the room as he calmly said, "Remember your blood pressure. Try to think of calming thoughts now… calming thoughts."

"They really are close friends, aren't they?" Kyou said aloud after the two men had left the room in a stunned silence. The words seemed to wake everyone else up from their daze and they turned back on Kyou as if to renew their argument. However, Kyou had her hand up and looked drained.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I may." they had all heard the Principal start with that line before. It was usually followed up with a lame excuse and a promise to acquiesce to some of their demands. It was the sign that they had achieved a partial victory. But this time it was not to be. "There is something that I have been wanting to tell all of you for a long time. Get out."

"Eh?" several stunned voices reacted to the unbelievable words.

"Your children are welcome here, but you are not. As you heard from the MEXT, Fujibayashi-sensei will have complete control over the teachers and students. But dealing with parents was left to me and I have had enough of you. If you want to pull your children out of this program, that's fine… but they will not be going back into any classroom in this school. I will not plague any of my teachers with any of your abusive personalities, any longer."

One of the men in the room had enough. First this pompous lavender haired teacher with her crazy idea's had filled his kid's head with nonsense, then the MEXT had called him a _pathetic worm_. And now this poor excuse of a principal was telling him to _get out_? He took a step toward the principal and started to swing his fist.

The principal wasn't a stout man and had actually never been in a fight in his life. He didn't cower though. He knew it would hurt, but he commanded his instincts not to run as the blow came toward his face. But just as suddenly, the man wasn't there and the sound of desks crashing against each other filled the room.

The man lay on the floor and up against the shoe shelves. In a daze, he wondered what had happened. He had been hit by something very solid – in his chest. Looking down, he saw a first grader's introduction to Hiragana lying on the floor next to him. Looking up, he saw the teacher now hefting a huge Japanese – English translation dictionary and glaring at him. Or, he thought she was glaring at him. Her eyes seemed like two red embers and her head was shrouded in a dark aura.

"Does anyone else want to try violence in my classroom?" Kyou dared them all, but there was no response.

A few moments after the last of the parents had left, Kyou dropped into her chair and started shaking. She let the big dictionary slip from her grasp and looked at her hand as if it's movements had been some kind of traitorous action of it's own.

The Principal had thought about lecturing her on the rules about the use of violence on school grounds, but it looked like she was blaming herself already. Worse, she looked shaken. He knew what the future looked like from what the MEXT had just announced and he couldn't allow her to wallow in self doubt. It would only lead to her own self-destruction. That would lead to the end of the program. And that would be the end of the school.

"What can I do?" the Principal asked. Before waiting for an answer, he was already moving desks back into position and putting a few shoes back in their cubby spaces.

"Huh?" Kyou looked up at the man that she had forgotten was still there.

"You just saved me from pain and humiliation and I thank you for that. But you aren't handling it well, are you?" he asked. Bending over, he picked up the small book on Hiragana that had been left on the floor where the man's body had come to rest.

"No… I swore I wouldn't do it again. At least, not at school. That was… inexcusable." Kyou looked ashen, as if her spirit were leaving her.

"You've done this before?" the Principal asked. He didn't sound accusatory, only curious.

"I hit somebody with a dictionary once… and almost killed him. I was out of control… I was a monster." the horror of that memory came back like a swarm of dark clouds beginning to block out all light, warmth, and hope.

"But this time, you used a little Hiragana book." The Principal laid the small primer down on top of the massive translation dictionary and said, "It doesn't seem to me that there is any problem with your control this time."

"Huh?" Kyou's confusion snapped her out of her depressive spiral for the moment. She looked back up at the Principal as if she hadn't fully understood what he was saying.

"These books were next to each other on your desk, were they not?" the Principal pointed out, "So, whether consciously or unconsciously, you chose to use a book with… less lethality."

Kyou could say nothing. She could only stare at the two books laying on her desk. Wanting to pick the two books up and compare their weight, she dared not take them in her hands just yet. The memory of hurling the book at the aggravating little man was still too fresh in her mind. But she could tell by just looking, that the Hiragana book was far smaller and lighter by comparison.

"Kyou-mama?" Shuichi asked from next to Kyou's elbow.

"Eh?" Kyou blinked and realized that the principal was no longer in the room and her boys were looking at her worriedly. She wondered how long she had been staring at the books. "Where is everyone else?"

"They're still outside. Yuki-san said we should come talk to you." Shuji told her.

"Are you okay?" Shuichi asked.

"No." Kyou's eyes teared up as she admitted to her little boys, "Kyou-mama needs a hug!"

In moments, both of the boys were in Kyou's lap. Their arms were wrapped around her in the hugs that were guaranteed to rekindle the heart.

.

 **Wednesday late morning, October 20 – Prefecture Hospital Coma Ward**

* * *

The nurse on station didn't notice the change in the monitors. It wasn't the kind of change that indicated an emergency condition, so it wasn't something that set off alarms. It wasn't for some minutes later when everything in the ward was supposed to be quiet, that she thought something was strange. Thinking at first that she was hearing a malfunctioning sensor, she listened harder and realized with shock - that it wasn't that kind of sound at all.

The rules on this floor were very strict. The nurse was not allowed to leave the monitoring station under any circumstances. If she needed help, she should hit the panic button or call for assistance. A non-emergency call for assistance could mean a thirty minute wait. This didn't warrant the panic button, but she wanted someone quick. She was about to hit the panic button anyway when she saw a group of candy-stripers walking by.

"Oi, you girls! I need your help over here." she called out to them.

For a moment, they looked like they were going to tell her that they were on an errand and promise to send someone as soon as they got to their assigned nurse.

"Listen to me." the nurse knew what to say to get their attention. "This is a _real_ situation. I am _not_ going to ask you to go get me a drink or a snack."

"What can we do?" their eyes were opened wide with the promise of doing something truly useful. Just like any other place, candy-stripers were high-school age volunteers that worked in hospitals and wore uniforms with bright candy colored stripes. However, without any formal medical training, all they could be allowed to do was usually running errands for the doctors and nurses. The chance to do something significant was a rare gem indeed.

"This is the coma ward, so every patient in every room should be quietly asleep, right?" the nurse asked the girls rhetorically, "But if you listen closely, you can hear someone crying."

"What?" a few of the girls said in surprise, but then got quiet with the others to see if they could really hear the crying. It took a few moments, but they did hear it.

"We don't have any visitors right now, so that means… it has to be a patient. Since I can't leave this station, I need you girls to go into every room and see if any of them are crying… or if the sound of crying goes away, check for tears. Got it?" She asked the girls.

"Yes!" they said quietly.

The nurses station was at the intersection of the two coma ward hallways meeting the main hallway. Two of the girls went down one hallway while the other two went down the other one. As soon as they left, the nurse looked over her monitors and saw the flutter that she hadn't previously noticed. Brain, heart rate, and respiration activity on the patient in room seventeen had increased. In fact, they were at the level of a person who was… awake! Her fingers flying over the keyboard, she pulled up the information on the patient in room seventeen and quickly read through the profile. There was a special symbol over this patient's record. The nurse's eyes opened wide when she recognized that symbol and it's significance. _Any change in status require_ _s_ _immediate notification of the head nurse, the on-call physician, and_ _authorizes use of…_ _the panic button._

"I found her! I found her! It's room seventeen! She really is crying!" a girl's voice pealed down the corridor as the red lights started flashing.

Her hand still mashing down the panic button, she looked back at the screen and read the name from the profile.

"Welcome back… Ibuki Fuko."

.

* * *

 **This chapter includes a tip of the hat to the Seeker of the Dawn.**


	24. Chapter 24 - The Memorable Recital

**Wednesday afternoon, October 20 – Abe Private Hospital**

* * *

Ushio's dreams were stark and full of shadows. Muffled sounds and indistinct visions surrounded her. Nothing was actively stalking her but it wasn't a dream that conveyed a sense of comfort. To a four year old, it was quickly becoming a scary place. When her eyes fluttered open, Ushio could see that she was still in the same hospital room as before, and that made her feel a little better. Hearing a half whispered conversation, she looked around and saw Akki talking to the lavender haired lady that was the sister of her Kindergarten teacher. _Her name is… Ryou-san?_

"Akki?" she called out. She could see that Akki and the lady stopped talking. Then Akki came over to sit next to her bed while the lady with the short lavender hair left the room.

"Ushio," Akki smiled and patted her head as he started what he knew would be a difficult conversation for her, "I have to talk to you about something and it might seem scary. But, no matter what happens, I want you to know that I'll be right here with you and I won't leave you. Okay?"

"O...okay." Ushio could see that Akki seemed worried, so she was a little scared too.

"There is an old folk tale about a little boy that went to sleep and woke up in another world. Some things in that world were familiar, but other things weren't. Nobody there knew who he was and he had to make all new friends. Have you ever heard that story?" he asked Ushio.

"Um… it was a little girl. And when she woke up there were talking animals." Ushio answered timidly.

"Ah good… so, something like that has happened to you now." Akio told her.

"Huh?" Ushio was obviously confused, but part of what her Akki told her did sound intriguing. "Am I going to see a talking animal?"

"Oh, I'm… really not very good at this." Akio looked down and twisted his fingers in his hands. After taking a deep breath, he decided to try a different tactic. It was time to bring in someone who was bound to be much, much better at this. But, since that solution was part of the problem – he had to at least get Ushio that far. So he tried again, "Ushio, what do you remember of your Obāsan?"

"She… was pretty." Ushio seemed reticent to talk about her grandmother.

"Did you like her?" Akio asked gently. Not knowing what kinds of things might have happened to Ushio in that other universe made him worry that he might accidentally uncover a very painful memory.

"Yes. Lots and lots." a downcast Ushio replied.

"Well, remember when I said that something like that folk tale has happened to you? You see, in this world, your Obāsan never went away. Would you like to see her now?" Akio offered.

"You mean, a picture? Like the one on the shrine with mama and papa?" Ushio asked.

"No." Akio knew then that what Isamu and Tomoya suspected was true. In that other universe, Ushio had lost her mother, her father, and Sanae too. She was in store for some shocks and Akio prayed that the little girl would be able to adjust to what she was about to find out. "In this world, Sanae isn't a picture on a shrine. She's waiting on the other side of that door and she wants to see you."

"She's… she's not a zombie is she?" Ushio looked more amazed than terrified.

"Huh?" Akio wondered, _Oh crap! Did the other me tell ghost stories to a four year old? What was I thinking?_ Calming himself as much as possible he assured the child, "No, Ushio. She is alive and well."

"Really?" Ushio seemed excited but also on the verge of tears. "Can I really see her?"

Akio had no time to answer. The door flew open and Sanae stepped into the room as if someone outside had given her a firm shove. She looked around for only a moment until she saw the little girl looking back at her.

"O… Obāsan!" Ushio shrieked. She tried to get out of her bed but she was still hooked up to the intravenous drip.

"Don't get up, Ushio! Sanae will come to you, I promise!" Akio said as he held her down with his hands around her waist.

By the time he had finished telling her not to move, Sanae had indeed rushed over to the bed and wrapped the little girl in a warm hug. All three of them were crying now, but theirs weren't the only tears.

.

Out in the hallway, Ryou waited with Nagisa. They could both hear everything and were both thinking the same thing. A horrible, crushing sadness loomed into their thoughts. Knowing that the little girl in the other room had lost everyone dear to her in the first four years of her life… who could blame her for her outpouring of emotion. Squeals of delight ricocheted off the walls, and tears of joy desperately tried to wash away a short lifetime of sorrow. Sanae's presence had stirred the child's emotions up like a whirlwind and it would still be a few minutes before she would be coherent again.

"You're next, you know." Ryou whispered to Nagisa.

"She won't remember me. The Nagisa in her world died during childbirth." Nagisa said with equal measures of sorrow and jealousy. Sorrow for the little girl that had to grow up with only pictures of her mother, and jealousy of her own mother who was getting such a warm welcome from the child.

"Ha! That little girl has been looking at your picture on her family shrine for four years. You were the _great mother_ that gave birth to her – and died doing so. She probably idolizes you." Ryou warned her girlfriend.

"Maybe. But, before that… I need to talk to you about something" Nagisa grasped Ryou's hands and, looking into her blue eyes – she said firmly, "I want us to adopt Ushio."

"Well, you are her mother, so I guess that's…" Ryou was cut off first by a change in the way Nagisa was squeezing her hands, and then by her words.

"No, Ryou. Another version of me was her mother. That Nagisa fell in love with Okazaki Tomoya, but I never did. He has only ever been a good friend to me. You are the only one I ever loved like that!" Nagisa insisted.

 _You are the only one I ever loved like that!_

"Ah!" Besides her outcry, Ryou also blushed all the way to her ears. She had lived with Nagisa for quite a while now and this level of directness from her was unusual, but not unheard of. Ryou had already been wondering how she would fit into the picture if Nagisa wanted to bring Ushio in as her child. "Of course, I would support your…"

"No! I want _us_ to adopt Ushio. You and me. Together. I want you to be Ushio's parent too! I don't…" Nagisa's bravado began to falter and the tears came to her eyes as she thought about the words that had to be said now – and the fear of Ryou turning her down, "I don't want to do this without you, Ryou!"

"You don't… you really don't… do you?" Ryou's tears spilled too. All of her fears of being an outsider washed away, and a wonderful opportunity that she had never imagined lay before her. "So… I'll be an adoptive mother."

"No." Nagisa got some of the firmness back in her voice, "We'll _both_ be adoptive mothers! Are… are you okay with that?"

"Yes." Ryou said hesitantly. She remembered the lesson she had just learned from Akio and still felt terrible about the things she had said that had hurt so many people.

' _Real' parents… are that special kind of person who willingly inconvenience themselves to make sure that a child has the love and support they need to thrive. Even though there is no requirement for them to do so, adoptive parents choose to do it anyway. Not because of blood, but because of an abundance of love and compassion – they do this. Adoptive parents may be the most 'real' of them all._

Ryou thought of how empty her life would have been if she had clung to the misguided ideals that had brought her so much unhappiness. She would have lost this opportunity with Ushio. She probably would have lost Nagisa, as well as… onee-chan. A chill ran through her as she thought of how she urgently needed to apologize to her beloved sister. But her hesitation was gone now. Ryou knew what she had to do… what she _wanted_ to do. She looked Nagisa in the eyes and resolutely told her, "Yes. I am ready to be a mother with you."

.

"Ushio, are you okay?" Sanae had been holding the little girl in her arms for a while now. She had felt every sob, tremor, and spasm while Ushio laughed, and cried, and laughed again. She was looking at Ushio's face and watching out for signs that the child may be too stimulated for any more surprises.

"Yup! I'm happy!" Ushio beamed. Her little hands were still holding onto the fabric of Sanae's dress, which _could_ be a sign of stress, but her eyes were bright and her voice didn't waver when she responded.

Akio gave his wife a nod of approval when she looked up to him. He thought she was ready too.

"Ushio, sweetie. You remember that Akki said that things are different in this world, right?" Sanae asked as gently as she could.

"Yup! I like this place. It's a good place." Ushio smiled.

"Is it a good place because Sanae is here?" Akio asked.

"Yup!" Ushio answered simply. "And Akki too!"

"I'm glad that makes you happy. And, I think we'll have more happy news for you too."Akio said slowly, "But it isn't all happy things that I have to tell you."

"Huh?" Ushio looked up at the man that she believed to be her familiar grandfather and wondered what was making him suddenly look so sad.

"In this world, we didn't have an Ushio at all until you got here, so… I may look like your Akki, but I'm not really the same Akki that you grew up with."

"What?" Ushio was trying to figure out what Akki was trying to tell her, but it was difficult.

"Ushio," Sanae kissed the girl's forehead and told her, "it means that none of us have any memories with you, but that's going to change starting today! From now on, we are all going to make lots of wonderful memories with you, okay?"

"Yeah!" Ushio pumped a fist in the air in a way that reminded Sanae of Akio – whenever he made a good play in baseball. She could tell that the other world's Akio had made an impact on the child already.

"Are you ready for another good surprise, Ushio?" Akio asked.

"Yup!" Ushio still wouldn't let go of Sanae's dress, but she didn't seem to be too stressed for this next introduction.

"Okay, but first, I want you to tell me what you know about your mother." Sanae patted the little girl's head. She hadn't meant for the question to be a painful thing for the child, but she could see much of the happiness and cheer drain from Ushio almost instantly.

"She was a good person and Papa loved her very much. Akki and Obāsan loved her too, but they said she was sick a lot. She died when I was born, so I don't remember her… but, I know she was pretty." Ushio said sadly.

"Because of the picture on the shrine?" Akio asked.

"Yup… I want to be as pretty as her some day." Ushio said thoughtfully.

"Well, Ushio… in this world, our Nagisa doesn't get sick any more. But, she never had a wonderful daughter like you either and… she would like to meet you very much. Would you like that?" Sanae asked Ushio and watched the child's melancholy instantly disappear into wonder and happiness.

"Yes! Can I really?" Ushio would have chirped more questions but she was stunned into silence when the Ryou-lady came back into the room holding the hand of… of…

"Okāsan?" Ushio had forgotten everything Sanae had just told her about _this Nagisa_ never having a child. All her four year old mind knew was that the person who's picture she had adored since she could remember… was standing just a few meters away from her now.

Nagisa ran to the child and hugged her tight. She had heard Ushio's answer to Sanae's question and was glad that Ushio thought she was pretty. And, like Ryou had warned her, it only made the bar that much higher. But right now, there was no concern about bars or the propriety of being called _Okāsan_ when she had never had a child. The only thing Nagisa was thinking at this moment was how much she wanted to be this child's mother… now, and for the rest of their lives.

.

 **Wednesday afternoon, October 20 – Prefecture Hospital Coma Ward**

* * *

The automatic doors on the Coma Ward floor slid open and the Yoshino family burst into the Ward's lobby. Maiko was holding her mother's hand and running to keep up. Yusuke was carrying Yasuo in his arms as they approached the nurses' station.

"Yoshino family, this way!" another nurse on the floor saw them and recognized Kouko immediately. All the doctors and nurses had known that the patient's family had been called, so it was not so surprising to see them all in such an excited state.

"Is… is she really awake?" Kouko was beside herself with anxiety. She dreaded them telling her that it was all a mistake, but she had hope that this long ordeal was finally over for her little sister.

"Yes!" the nurse replied as she ushered the family along. Then she cautioned Kouko, "She's scared. She has been asking for you since she woke up and she doesn't know why she's here."

"She doesn't…" Kouko stopped just outside the door and asked the nurse directly, "She doesn't know why she's here? She doesn't know that she's been in a coma all this time?"

"No…" the nurse seemed concerned that Kouko didn't understand this and explained, "She went into the coma at the time of a traffic accident, so naturally she has no memory of anything that has happened since then."

"No… no memories?" Kouko looked down at Maiko and over at Yasuo. She shuddered when she thought of what a reset like this might do to her children… and the other children that Fuko had interacted with.

"We think it's best if she only sees her sister now." the nurse told the family, "Seeing all the unfamiliar faces will only confuse her."

 _unfamiliar faces…_

"Now just a minute…" Yusuke was about to argue the point but Kouko stopped him.

"Let me… at first anyway. I need to know if she really can't remember anything since… the accident."

Yusuke nodded. Then he knelt and put his arms around his daughter and son and pulled them in close while his wife went into the room.

"Obachan might not remember us?" Maiko asked her father.

"Maybe not. Things happen to the mind when a person is in a coma. But, even if she doesn't remember any of us now, it won't change who she is – or what kind of person she is. She will still be the same Obachan that you loved, You'll just have to start over with her, and make all new memories. That won't be so bad, will it?"

"I guess not." Maiko didn't sound all that optimistic and her little brother looked positively glum.

The nurse looked at them with an expression of disbelief. _What on earth are they talking about? Of course the patient will have no memories of these children. They were born after she had gone into the coma._

.

"Fu-chan?" Kouko said as she entered the room and saw her sister in a mostly sitting-up position.

"Onee-chan!" Fuko tried desperately to go to her sister, but her arms and legs felt heavy and strange – as if she were trying to use them for the very first time.

"Don't try to move, Fu-chan. I'll come to you." Kouko approached her sister's real body and noticed how frail she seemed, compared to the energetic ikiryo that had been manifesting all these years. It wasn't too difficult to see them as two different versions of her sister when she thought about it like that. Although she was glad that her little sister was finally out of her coma, this was bittersweet for her since she had come to really like the ikiryo Fuko too. But it would be much more difficult for the children. The ikiryo version of her sister was the only one they had ever known. They had played with her, she had gone to their school events… She had been with little Yasuo practically since he was born and now… now she wouldn't remember anything about the closeness she had with her niece or nephew. It was too much to bear and the tears started forming around Kouko's eyes.

Fuko could see her sister's sadness and felt guilty that she had been a burden to her onee-chan once again.

"Onee-chan? Fuko is sorry to have caused you trouble. Did Fuko make you late for school?" the short woman in the hospital bed asked. She could see that her sister looked like she was about to cry, but she didn't seem to be mad at Fuko.

"No… you didn't make me late." Kouko wiped away the tears and asked the question she knew she had to, "Can you tell me what was the last thing you remember?"

"Um… Onee-chan looked like she was going to cry." Fuko replied.

"Huh? No, Fu-chan… I mean your last memory before you woke up here in this hospital." Kouko remembered the exasperation that her sister could often cause when trying to talk to her.

"Fuko remembers…" Fuko was about to say something about running somewhere because she was late. But there was something else. Something… wonderful. "Fuko… smelled something."

"Huh?" Kouko had no idea what kind of memory her little sister was dredging up. She had always liked the smell of dinner cooking so Kouko asked, "Was it curry?"

"It… was a cute smell." Fuko seemed to be as confused as her sister was, at the strange response. It felt like there was a memory just out of reach but she kept seeing glimpses of it and she wanted to know more. She tried to force herself to remember but that only gave her a headache and she didn't even have the strength in her arms to lift her hands to her head. Since she couldn't do that much, she closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath.

"Fu-chan… you've been in a coma… for a very long time." Kouko told her sister.

"Fuko knows that much. The nurses said this was the coma ward, so Fuko knows she must have been in a coma." Fuko said, as she kept her eyes closed and waited a bit while the pain in her head slowly died down.

"Very good, Fu-chan. Did the nurses tell you how long you have been in a coma?" Kouko asked.

"No." Fuko answered.

"It's 2010 now." Kouko said bluntly. She knew it would take her sister a moment to do the math in her head, and then she would have to start the long process of helping her little sister to get used to a whole new world where she was no longer young enough to be a high school student.

"2010!" Fuko's eyes flew open and she blinked away the blurriness to see a little boy standing in the doorway looking up at her. "Oh, hello Yasuo-kun. Did you come to see Fuko too?"

"Eh?" Kouko's head spun around to see her son peering into the room from the doorway.

"I'm sorry." Yasuo started backing out of the room since he knew that he had been spotted. He had been told to wait with his father and sister, but he wanted to see his aunt so very much that he had dared to sneak a peek in the room.

"No!" Kouko called out to her son, "It's okay, Yasuo. Come to Okāsan."

The little boy obediently walked around the hospital bed to his mother and held his arms out to be picked up. After sweeping him up from the floor, Kouko held him close. But he was closer to Fuko now too. Her face was only a meter away, as the two looked into each other's eyes.

"Now tell me, Fu-chan… tell me how you know Yasuo-kun!"

.

 **Wednesday evening, October 20 – Abe Private Hospital**

* * *

Akio was waiting in the lobby of the hospital for the man that he used to call _brat_. Tomoya wasn't a kid any more and was a lot more familiar with responsibility than he had been in high school. Akio acknowledged that. He thought of Tomoya's growth since the first time they met and had to admit that _the brat_ had done a lot of growing up over the last several years. _Of course, having a kid can do that to you. And he's got three and another one on the way! No… he has four and another one on the way. And that's what we need to talk about… man to man._

"Akio-san, thank you for calling me." Tomoya bowed to the older man.

"You came alone?" Akio was surprised, but thankful that he had, since…

"I arrived early. This will give us a little time to talk before the rest of the family gets here." Tomoya's words completed Akio's thoughts. "I suppose she has already met Sanae-san and Nagisa-chan?"

"Yes." Akio answered.

"How did she handle that?" Tomoya looked concerned. But that was understandable. They had all been apprehensive while they were introducing the little girl to people that she had previously known to be dead.

"Really well, actually. That kid is made of some pretty stern stuff." the old man said with admiration.

"Well, she's only four, so she should still be pretty resilient when it comes to big life changes. But it's good to hear that they are all getting along well." Tomoya smiled.

"Um… yeah, they're getting along really well. In fact, Nagisa and Ryou want to adopt her." Akio gritted his teeth after he told Tomoya. This was where the fighting could start and he knew it.

"Heh!" Tomoya chuckled.

"You're laughing?" Akio was perplexed at such a reaction.

"It's just that… Kotomi-chan said this would happen. Kyou-chan thought it was impossible. So I bet her a thousand yen. Looks like she's gonna have to pay up when she gets here." Tomoya smirked.

"Kyou-chan is coming too?" Akio now knew that he would have to arrange for a moment for Kyou and Ryou to talk as well.

"The whole family is on their way. I want Ushio to know that she now has brothers and a sister too." Tomoya added, "But don't worry. As long as Ushio has a chance to get to know the Okazaki side of her family, I don't plan to put up a big legal fight over the adoption."

"You don't?" Akio was relieved, but a little disappointed too. "You don't _want_ Ushio?"

"I didn't say that." Tomoya could see the challenge in Akio's eyes. "It's true that much of what I am about to tell you is just speculation, but you have to admit that Kotomi's analytical abilities are pretty amazing, right? Well, according to all the data she has on the Ushio's, and the Illusionary World that she is using to bridge all the parallel worlds we have been to, she told me this: Any Ushio we find will have lost her mother at childbirth."

"I thought there were endless possibilities with infinite parallel universes." Akio rebutted.

"I did too, and there are. But we will never see one where father, mother, and daughter are alive and well. The key is the fact that we are using the Illusionary World as a bridge to get to all of the parallel worlds. That place itself, is a construct made by one or more Ushios. Those worlds were used to find existences where Tomoya, Nagisa, and Ushio could be alive and happy together. Once an Ushio finds a world like that, she will collapse the Illusionary World since it will no longer be necessary. That means, the only worlds we find with an Ushio in them will be places where the three of them are _not_ living _happily ever after_." Tomoya explained.

"You know… you're starting to sound like Kotomi-chan." Akio smirked.

"I know, right. What's weirder is that I'm starting to understand some of this stuff." Tomoya chuckled.

"But… what does any of that have to do with you not wanting custody of your child?" Akio put it bluntly.

"Baka!" Tomoya returned it just as bluntly, "Try to keep up, old man! First of all, she isn't my child… in this universe. More importantly, I never said I didn't want custody or that I didn't feel compassion for her. But this isn't about me. It is about what's best for Ushio, isn't it?"

"Then…" Akio wondered if Tomoya was changing his mind and would want custody after all.

"Then, if Kotomi was right, _this_ Ushio also lost her mother in childbirth and has spent her whole life looking at a picture on the shrine and believing her mother to have been an almost divine being that sacrificed herself so that Ushio could live." Tomoya could see the surprise in Akio's face and was pretty sure he hit the nail on the head when he asked, "Am I close?"

"Um… yeah." Akio admitted.

"Then, if I'm doing what I think is in the best interest of Ushio, I can't possibly take her away from the only person that has been a constant point of stability in her life up until now. And there's no way I could interfere with a chance for Ushio to get to live with her beatific mother, is there?" Tomoya watched the light bulb come on as Akio understood Tomoya's conclusion. Then Tomoya added, "But I want them visiting often. I want Ushio to get to know her siblings, and me too. That is not negotiable."

"In the best interests of Ushio… yeah. I can agree with that and I'm pretty sure Nagisa and Ryou can too." Akio smiled. This had turned out a lot better than he had expected. And for once, he was very happy to have been wrong.

.

"Papa! I've missed you so much." Ushio cried out when Tomoya and Akio came into her hospital room. She held her arms out to him and he came to her and hugged her close.

Watching the little girl's emotional response to being reunited with her father, Nagisa and Ryou had second thoughts about adopting her. They were both wondering if Ushio might be happier if she lived with the father she had known at least some of her short life.

"Is that what you called your father in the other world? Do you want to call me Papa, too?" Tomoya asked the little girl still clinging to him. The question had a more subtle purpose than just the establishing of names. Akio had told Tomoya that he had already explained that she was in another world now, and Tomoya wanted to remind Ushio that he was not the same person that had died in her world.

"Can I? Can I call you Papa?" Ushio chirped happily.

"Okay, but you do remember that Akio told you that you are in another world now? Well, in this world, Nagisa and I are very good friends, and we have been since High School. But I am married to someone else and we have several kids. So that means you now have brothers and a sister. Are you okay with that?"

"Really?" Ushio was thrilled with the idea of having brothers and sisters. The rest of what Tomoya had said was quickly forgotten in the excitement of seeing her father again and the promise of having brothers and sisters to play with.

"Yes." Tomoya moved out of the way so Ushio could see the family that had followed him into the room. He was preparing to introduce her to Kotomi, Kyou, Shuichi, Shuji, and Michiko, when Ushio suddenly made an excited shriek.

"Sensei!" Ushio cried out and startled everyone except Ryou.

"Me?" Kyou was momentarily stunned, but someone pushed her forward and she was soon hugging the little version of Nagisa.

"Oh, I forgot to mention." Ryou laughed, "The Akio in her world took her to the elementary school where she would be starting in the spring and she got a chance to meet her teacher."

"Her Kindergarten teacher is… me?" Kyou asked in surprise.

Ryou nodded her head with a smile. She knew what that little tidbit would mean to her sister.

.

A short time later, while Ushio was getting a chance to meet her new siblings, Tomoya and Kyou were standing next to each other against the wall. Kyou was still feeling the thrill that she had made it to her goal of becoming a Kindergarten teacher in yet another universe. She was also basking in the glow of all the happiness in the room.

"You owe me a thousand yen." Tomoya said quietly.

"Don't ruin the moment, Okazaki!" Kyou said through clenched teeth. It still grated on her nerves that he had won that bet. She hadn't thought there was any way that her sister would…

"Onee-chan?" a quiet but familiar voice came from beside Kyou.

"Ryou?" Kyou could see that her sister was… not as happy as everyone else in the room. In fact, she looked like she was on the verge of tears – and not joyful ones. When Kyou looked around, she saw Akio standing next to the door and waving her over. Kyou took Ryou by the hand and they were soon out the door and in another room that happened to be empty at the moment. _I'll have to thank Akio for this later._

As soon as they got into the room, Ryou collapsed against her sister's chest and started crying.

"Onee-chan, I'm so sorry! I've been so stupid! Please, please forgive me." Ryou had planned to explain why she had recently had such a reversal in her feelings, but it all fell apart with the surge in emotions and the fear that her Onee-chan would hate her for the years of awful things she had been saying.

"Shush." Kyou said while she held her crying sister close, "I could never hate my dear little sister."

.

 **Thursday morning, October 21 – City Hall**

* * *

The clerk in the family register department was used to routine. In these days of declining birth rates, there wasn't as much work as there used to be, and it was always routine stuff. Recording births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Occasionally, there was a short line when people realized they needed to get certain things done by the end of the month, but that was predictable too. So, three quarters of the way through the month, there was no reason at all to expect anything but the usual daily routine.

And that was fine. The clerk in the family register department preferred normalcy and routine. As soon as city hall was open, she expected to wait an hour or so before the first person showed up at her department looking for help. That would give her time to get some tea, look through her email, and relax a bit before having to deal with the first customer who thought their problem was new and different and would need special attention. She would listen to their ramblings for a bit, but would eventually give them her cynical eye and let them know that this was the same thing she had done a thousand times before… just with different names. Even that was part of her routine.

What was not routine was finding a parade of people filing into her office first thing in the morning and among them… the mayor?

"Ah, excellent." the mayor said as they approached the desk, "Furukawa-san, Fujibayashi-san, Okazaki-san, this lady can help you out. I have faith that she can quickly resolve any issues and get you on your way on this happy day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I do have a meeting I must run off to."

He took a step back then addressed a young woman with long powder blond hair, "Sakagami-san, I trust you can take care of things from here out, for me?"

"Yes, mayor." Tomoyo gave the older man a polite bow, then turned her attention on the clerk. She felt it only fair to warn the older woman, "This is going to be different and may be difficult for you."

"Of course it will." the old clerk gave a smile that was as sarcastic as her reply and settled in to hear some long drawn out story with lots of emotion and very little fact.

"This man and this woman are the biological parents of a four year old girl that does not show up on any family register." Tomoyo pointed out Tomoya and Nagisa. Then she pointed out Akio and said, "This man is the maternal grandfather of the child and was the last person to have any custodial rights for the child." Finally, Tomoyo pointed out Nagisa and Ryou and said, "These two women want to file as adoptive parents of the child."

"Wait… why would the biological mother of the child need to adopt her own daughter?" the clerk asked.

"Both of the child's actual parents are deceased and their rights are thus null." Tomoyo answered.

"I thought you said they are the parents?" the clerk indicated Tomoya and Nagisa.

"A test would show that we are the biological parents, but we are not the actual parents." Tomoya replied.

"Okay… putting that aside for the moment," the clerk indicated Akio and asked, "I should find some record of the child on his family register then?"

"No. There will be no record of the child anywhere that you will be able to access." Tomoyo told her.

"Even if she is from a foreign country, I should be able to get something." the clerk said.

"She is from Japan, but still… you will find nothing." Tomoyo restated.

"That's just not possible." the clerk was starting to think this was all an elaborate ruse… except the mayor was involved and he did not go in for that kind of humor.

"So you're asking me to believe that there is a four year old child, born here in Japan, but there is no record of her. She is the daughter of these two but they don't have custody because they're dead – but they are clearly not dead. This man has custody, but there is nothing to show that because there are no records of the girl. And now the girl's undead mother and this other woman want to adopt her… the girl that doesn't exist." the clerk said with building exasperation.

"That's right." Tomoyo said without batting an eye, "I told you this would be difficult."

"Somebody, please tell me how any of this makes sense." the clerk demanded.

"Easy." Kotomi smiled and said, "The child is from a parallel dimension."

"Of course she is." the clerk closed her eyes and wondered what had happened to her normal, ordinary, and routine day.

.

Eventually, Nagisa and Ryou were able to start filling out the paperwork to legally adopt Ushio.

.

 **Friday afternoon, October 22 – Yoshino Residence**

* * *

Six candles decorated the cake on the big table in the dining room. The spectacular creation was another amazing work of art from the Furukawa Bakery. This time, Tomoyo worked with both Sanae and Yukine to come up with the perfect birthday cake for little Maiko. The theme for the decoration was butterflies, since Maiko was a fan of the fragile creatures. The multi-tiered birthday cake looked like it had been covered by a swarm of the most colorful and vivid butterflies.

"You know, if you keep making amazing cakes like that for a birthday party, she'll never be satisfied with her wedding cake." Youhei smirked.

"Hmm?" Kouko responded, "And who exactly are you planning to marry my only daughter off to, Youhei-kun?"

"It doesn't look like Youhei has to make any plans for that." Yukine directed their attention over to the living room where the children were playing. Maiko had changed clothes into a bright yellow party dress, but she was surrounded by many friends that were still in their school clothes. Yukine pointed out, "She has the Okazaki boys close to her as always."

"Perhaps, but recently there has been a rival." Kyou gave a nod to the fifth grade boy in the room. At a hundred and fifty-four centimeters, he towered over the other children in the class. Of course, that was to be expected, since all of the other children in the class were from lower grades. However, when he was among boys his own age, he was still six centimeters taller than most of them.

"That big boy is interested in my little Maiko?" Kouko asked with some concern.

"Actually, the opposite may be the case. Sometimes it seems like Maiko has laid claim to him, but I'm pretty sure he just sees her as a little sister." Kyou told the shocked mother.

"Oh my. You're telling me that my Kindergarten aged daughter is interested in a boy that's six years older than her?" Kouko asked.

"Five years. He is only in fifth grade, not sixth. It's a common mistake though. Most people think he's older because he's tall for his age." Kyou told them.

"Still, five years… maybe I should have a talk with her." Kouko sighed.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." Youhei warned.

"Why not?" Kouko suspected it was because her daughter's stubbornness was well known. That being the case, trying to talk her out of something could very likely backfire.

"Well… aren't there about five years between you and your husband?" Youhei said it quietly enough that only the small group of them could hear it, but he quickly learned that he shouldn't have said it at all. His wife's foot stomped on his toes and Kyou's elbow impacted his ribs at the same time. He wasn't knocked across the room like Kyou had done to him in the past. And, he was still able to mutter a "Sorry." … but just barely.

Kouko had to look away for a moment to avoid bursting out laughing at Youhei's distress. However, she did consider his words and, however rude it might have been for him to point it out, it was true. Even if Maiko didn't think to counter such an argument now, a talk like that would come back to bite her one day. When she did look back at her friends, Youhei was looking downcast and rubbing his ribs.

"Point taken, Youhei-kun." Kouko smiled to let him… and everyone else know that there weren't any bad feelings. "Between Fu-chan and that daughter of mine, I just know my hair is going to go gray any day now."

Both Yukine and Kyou gave Youhei a warning look about making a gray hair comment. But Youhei had learned his lesson. He drew his fingers across his lips in a my-lips-are-sealed gesture.

"How is your sister? I heard that she came out of her coma." Tomoyo asked.

"Yes! She is awake again. She's resting in her room now. She gets tired easily and she has almost no strength in her arms and legs, but she'll be starting physical therapy tomorrow." Kouko's initial excitement faded quickly. Now that she was reminded of it, she decided to ask them about something that was troubling her. "Do all of you remember the things you did with Fuko? By that I mean… the ikiryo."

"I do." Tomoyo said simply.

"Me too, although… she didn't interact with me as much as she did with you guys." Kyou's comment was directed at Kouko and the Sunohara's.

"I remember, and I know that Yoichi does as well. He asked if he was going to get a chance to play with Fuko when I told him we were coming here for Maiko-chan's birthday party." Youhei said.

"Are you concerned that we will all forget her, now that she is out of the coma and the ikiryo is gone?" Yukine asked.

"I was, but not so much any more. Now, I'm more worried about… her." Kouko admitted.

"What's wrong?" Yukine asked. She had always been a good friend of the ikiryo Fuko and if Kouko was concerned about Fuko, then she was too.

"Her memories are spotty and it's too early to tell if they are getting better or fading away. She remembered Yasuo pretty well. She barely recognized Maiko, and she didn't recognize Yusuke at all. He tried to shrug it off, but I could tell that it hurt him." Kouko told her friends.

"Hmmm…" Yukine thought for a moment and then asked, "Think back and try to remember a time when Yusuke-san did something special with Fuko-chan. You might have to ask Yusuke-san since you might not have been there."

Kouko wracked her brain trying to find a memory of something that her husband and her sister might have shared. She was at a loss until she remembered that day that she came home with the kids from the vacation to Hokkaido… "I've got it!"

.

Fuko woke up to the sound of someone in her room. She quickly saw her sister and another lady about the same height near her bed. The other lady had light brown hair, blue eyes, and seemed very familiar to her, but a name wasn't yet coming to mind. She was friendly though, and quietly helped Kouko to lean Fuko up and put pillows behind her so she could sit up for a bit.

But they weren't the ones that made the noise that had awoken her. Fuko saw the man that her sister said she had married. He was also in the room and it looked like he was setting up to play some music. There was a big speaker thing on the floor that was making a soft humming sound until he plugged his electric guitar into it.

He sat still for a moment and seemed to relax around his guitar. Then, his fingers found the strings and the little box on the floor came alive with amplified music. It was the same song he had played only a few months ago in what he had thought was an empty house. That previous time, he had been surprised when Fuko had suddenly shown up and improvised a dance that matched every nuance and note of his music perfectly. She had been graceful when the music was slow and frenetic when the music had more energy. Finally, she had crashed to the floor like a marionette whose strings were cut when the music suddenly ended.

Yukine had been watching Fuko the whole time and she knew when it happened. Fuko had been simply enjoying the music until the slow moving lullaby turned into a fast arpeggio. A look of shock registered on her face and Yukine knew that Fuko had just recovered another little piece of her missing memory. She knew what to do now. Fuko could have her memories back, but she would have to work for it and it wouldn't be easy. She took Kouko's hand and squeezed it. When the older friend turned to her, Yukine asked, "Do you trust me with Fuko?"

Kouko knew what this meant. Yukine had figured something out and she had a plan. Just like the way Yukine had figured out how to keep the ikiryo alive in everyone's mind, and the way she had figured out how to help Kouko see her sister's ikiryo. Kouko knew that Yukine had always been Fuko's friend, and had remembered the ikiryo through thick and thin. Yukine had gone out of her way to make sure that Fuko had lots of friends and that all of those friends could remember Fuko too… and it seemed to have worked. So, when Yukine asked if she could be trusted with Fuko's wellbeing… there could be only one answer. Kouko looked into Yukine's blue eyes and firmly replied.

"Implicitly."

.

* * *

 **Cast of Characters  
** **\- The Children -** **  
**

 **Shuichi and Shuji** (The Okazaki boys)  
Fraternal twins Birthday: 5/10/2004  
Tomoya and Kotomi's oldest children. They are 6 years & 5 months old at this point in the story. Raised with three parents, they see Kotomi as Okāsan and Kyou as Kyou-mama.

 **Shuichi** (Shuichi-kun, Shuichi-chan)  
male 128cm 27kg purple eyes steel blue hair

 **Shuji** (Shuji-kun, Shuji-chan)  
male 125cm 27kg blue eyes dark brown hair

 **Michiko** (Michiko-chan)  
female 117cm 22kg Birthday: 1/4/2006 blue eyes and deep purple hair  
Currently 4 years & 10 months old, she is the youngest of the Okazaki children – although Kotomi is now nine weeks along with her fourth child. She is timid and shy. Her brothers are sometimes overprotective of her but she doesn't seem to mind. She has shown an affinity for Sunohara Yoichi Sugisaka. Like her brothers, she sees Kyou as her mother.

 **Yoichi** (Yoichi, Yoichi-kun)  
male 102cm 15kg Birthday: 12/17/2005 blue eyes and brown hair  
The only child of Sunohara Youhei and Yukine. Currently 4 years & 10 months old, he is less than a month older and a bit smaller than Michiko, but possesses a calmness and confidence that are beyond his years.

 **Ushio** (Ushio-chan)  
female 106cm 16kg Birthday: 2/12/2006 light brown eyes and chestnut hair  
The child of Okazaki Tomoya and Furukawa Nagisa from a parallel universe. Currently 4 years & 8 months old, she is currently living with Akio and Sanae, but Nagisa and Ryou have begun an adoption process. She is looking forward to the coming school year where she will be in the Kindergarten class with Kyou-sensei.

 **Maiko** (Maiko-chan)  
female 108cm 16kg Birthday: 10/22/2004 blue eyes and red-brown hair  
The eldest child of Yoshino Yusuke and Kouko. Currently 6 years old, she is very competitive and possessive. She is constantly competing with _the Okazaki boys_ who she sees was being her own age. The possessiveness was recently displayed when she saw a girl from another class getting a little too close to a boy in _her_ class (Huyu).

 **Yasuo** (Yasuo-chan, Yasuo-kun)  
male 100cm 15kg Birthday: 5/3/1006 light brown eyes and red-brown hair  
Maiko's younger brother and the youngest child of Yoshino Yusuke and Kouko. Currently 4 years & 6 months old, he is born a little too late for the cutoff for the next school year and will be alone during the school days once Yoichi and Michiko start school. His aunt (the ikiryo Fuko) spent a lot of time with him from the moment he was born, and he was the first person she recognized (other than her sister), after she came out of her coma.

 **Huyu** (Huyu-kun, Nakajima Huyu)  
male 154cm 49kg Birthday: 4/23/1999 brown eyes and black hair  
Currently 11 years & 6 months old. He is the only fifth grader in Kyou's class. Previously, he had a problem with mathematics – which got him selected for Kyou's program. Having been horribly bullied for his poor academics by his former classmates, he was despondent and pessimistic at first, but has since grown to trust his teachers and has become a reliable classmate.


	25. Chapter 25 - Fuko's Recovery Begins

**Monday morning, October 25 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Monday had finally come and for a lot of people, it couldn't come soon enough. It marked the return to normalcy as some went back to work and others went back to school. It was also a new week that, hopefully wouldn't be as weird as the last one.

None of the events that had happened had been bad… for the most part. Nagisa and Ryou had suddenly become mothers. Akio and Sanae had suddenly become grandparents. Kyou's school received word that it would be closing down as a normal elementary school at the end of the academic year, but it would be re-opening as a school under Kyou's education program. Fuko's ikiryo had disappeared, but the real Fuko had finally awoken from her coma.

And those were just the headliners. There were a myriad of other things that affected even more people, and those _other things_ would take months to analyze and resolve.

But for now, the important thing on Kouko's mind was her little sister. Fuko still had almost no strength and required assistance with everything. Fortunately, she was small and not too difficult to move around. But the fact remained that she could not yet take care of herself and unfortunately, there was no-one at the Yoshino household that could take care of her either. Kouko had already taken too much time off from work. And, with the approach of the coming typhoon, she knew that Yusuke would soon be very busy with electrical repairs all over the prefecture. Maiko had to go to school and that left only little Yasuo. Small as Fuko was, she was still too much for a four and a half year old boy to handle.

There was a knock on the door while Kouko was trying to find the phone number for a home care service. She knew they would be expensive, but she couldn't think of any other options. Poor Yusuke wouldn't complain, even though it would depress him to see all of his overtime pay disappear into the medical bill void. But it couldn't be helped.

"Hello?" Kouko opened the door to the extent of the security chain. It was enough to see part of a rough looking man's face on the other side of the door.

"Hey there Yoshino-san, we're here to take your sister and your children." the man smiled and even sounded cheerful, while he said something that was quite scary.

"Baka!" another voice from a man Kouko couldn't see shouted, "You wanna scare her? You just made it sound like a kidnapping."

The other man was right. Kouko was about to call the police since she already had the phone in her hand. But before she hit the _Dial_ button, she heard a voice she recognized.

"Kouko, Yukine called me this morning and said you might need help." Tomoyo's voice called out to the frightened woman.

"Oh! Just a moment." Kouko quickly closed the door, took off the chain, and opened it wide to see Tomoyo, Isamu, Mikio, and Takeo there.

"What…" she didn't have time to ask her question as her energetic daughter ran out the door and collided into Mikio's leg.

"Eeeeeeee! Mikio-san, why are you here? Are you going to do something amazing again?" Ever since the night of the experiment, Maiko had decided that she liked the big brute. He had addressed the whole group and told them what kinds of things they were doing as explorers. But the golden moment that Maiko would always remember was when she saw him standing there with Huyu and bravely facing whatever came, as the seconds counted down for the emergency retrieval. Standing and waiting was really all he had done, but to this six year old girl he had been _amazing_.

"Yup! This mornin I'm gonna take you and the Okazaki boys to school. Howzat sound for amazing?" Mikio laughed as he picked up the little seventeen kilogram girl and put her on his shoulder as if she were no more than a stuffed animal.

Kouko was shocked to see her small daughter tossed up onto the man's shoulder in such a carefree way. She though about asking him to put her down, but it was obvious that Maiko was loving the attention and had none of her mother's fear. However, Tomoyo could see the concern in Kouko's face and that worried her. _Her boys_ had come a long way in changing their image. The last thing she wanted was for one of her own friends to think they were still a danger.

"If you have already made other arrangements…" Tomoyo was about to tell Mikio to put down the girl and step away from the front door. She was concerned that this might be too much for Kouko to handle first thing in the morning.

"No, no! Actually, you're a lifesaver. I haven't been able to arrange a sitter or nurse and…" It suddenly dawned on Kouko that she was being unfairly critical of someone who was there to do her a favor. After her brief reflection, she stopped in mid explanation and formally said, "Thank you very much, for your kind offer."

.

Mikio was proudly walking along with Maiko riding high on his shoulders. Mikio had offered to let Yasuo ride on the other shoulder, but he had another place he would rather ride. Sitting in his aunt's lap, he clung to Fuko while Takeo pushed her wheelchair up the street. Walking a little behind the rest, Isamu carried Maiko's randoseru over one shoulder while he held Tomoyo's hand with the other arm.

"Fuko, are you cold?" Tomoyo asked as they walked along. This late in October, there was a chill in the morning air and no-one wanted Fuko to get sick while she was still struggling with physical therapy.

"No, Fuko is okay. Fuko could ride for a hundred kilometers like this!" the girl boasted. But in truth, she was quickly tiring. It hadn't even been a week since she had come out of her coma and she did not have much stamina yet.

"We'll be at the Ichinose house soon and you can rest there a bit." Tomoyo told the childlike woman.

"Does Fuko know them?" Fuko asked. The name, "Ichinose" didn't ring any bells, but then again, she had no idea who Yusuke was until he started playing his electric guitar.

"Well, it's called the Ichinose House, but Kotomi married Okazaki Tomoya, so now she is Okazaki Kotomi." Tomoyo explained.

"Okazaki…" Fuko let the name roll off her tongue and, for some reason, it was a name she didn't care for very much.

"Yes, Tomoya and Nagisa were some of your first friends. They were the ones that helped you pass out the wooden starfish and they convinced your sister that she should marry Yusuke." Tomoyo said.

"Why did they do that?" Fuko asked.

"It was something you wanted. Your sister couldn't see your ikiryo at first, so you couldn't tell her yourself." Tomoyo knew that there were more stories of things that happened between those three, but she would let Tomoya and Nagisa tell her. For now, she just wanted to hurry up and get Fuko and the children into a warm house.

"They did that for Fuko?" the confusion grew. Fuko knew that she should feel grateful to someone who had done so much for her, but she also felt a certain distaste when she heard the name _Okazaki_. She squeezed Yasuo's hand a little tighter. She wanted to wrap her cute little nephew in a hug, but she wasn't recovered enough to do that yet. Finding her determination, she decided that she would find out exactly who this Okazaki person was when she got to the house.

.

But it was not to be. Tomoya had already left for a meeting at City Hall by the time Fuko had arrived. There was nothing about the butler or maid that greeted them that helped to bring back any memories. However, once she got inside the house there was a sense of familiarity and she did get to see something that truly warmed her heart. Her little Yasuo-kun was having so much fun playing with his friends Michiko-chan and Yoichi-kun. From her wheelchair, she watched the three children with their coloring books on the floor of the house's dojo. The children had known where to go to get their coloring books, pencils, and markers. And, by the way they naturally found their places on the floor, Fuko could tell that the children had been to this home a lot. Glancing over at the cabinet where they had acquired their art supplies, Fuko noticed that there were two more coloring books in the drawer. One was still sealed in plastic and the other looked like it had been lovingly used for quite some time.

"Who are the other coloring books for?" Fuko asked.

"Huh?" Michiko looked up.

"There's a new one and an old one in the drawer." Fuko pointed at the drawer that was still open.

"Oh, the new coloring book is for my new sister, Ushio-chan." Michiko said a little stiffly. She still wasn't used to the idea of suddenly having a sister that was about the same age as her. Then, in a more comfortable tone she said, "The old one is yours."

"Huh?" Fuko wondered what the little girl meant, "You're letting Fuko have one of your old coloring books?"

"Huh?" Michiko didn't understand Fuko's confusion. To her, there was no difference between this Fuko and the Fuko that she had always known… except for the wheelchair. But if Fuko was confused, Michiko would try and help. She went over to the drawer, pulled out the older coloring book, and crawled up into Fuko's lap. "This is Fuko's coloring book. See?"

"Fuko's coloring book?" Fuko watched the colored images flip by as the little girl in her lap turned the pages for her. The confusion was ebbing away but it wasn't being replaced by understanding… or calm.

Surprise and shock were battering Fuko as each page revealed an artistic style that she recognized as her own. Kouko had explained about her ikiryo that had known so many people. At first, she had believed her sister was playing some kind of strange joke. In the end though, she knew her onee-chan wasn't that kind of person and she accepted that Kouko honestly believed what she was saying. Fuko herself still found it hard to believe and didn't know what to make of all this. It had made her tired just thinking about it, so she had decided that it was something she could try and figure out later. But it was no longer something she could put off. The impossible was sitting in her lap… just a short reach away.

Fuko's eyes were open wide and her hands were trembling. There was something frightening about all of this. Knowing that she… or at least the ikiryo of her had done things and known people while she slept for almost a decade… _How many people out there know me… and I don't know them? What kinds of things have I done… and don't remember? Onee-chan… help me!_ She didn't want to lose it and cry in front of these children, but it was a shock to see this… real physical evidence that she had been here before. The slightly browned color of the pages and the way the pages curled up a bit at the top… _I… I've seen this before!_ Fuko reached out and felt the grainy texture of the page's border and the waxy feeling of the colored places. Her fingers rubbed against the place where the pages curled up and suddenly, a mad procession of memories came rushing back into her head.

She had played with these children before. In this house. In this room. She could see herself on the floor with them – coloring together. Sharing markers and showing their works to each other… Fuko hadn't realized that she was hyperventilating until she saw the children's worried faces looking up at her.

"Fuko-chan… are you okay?" Yoichi asked.

"Ojiisan! Ojiisan!" Michiko screamed as loud as she could while she held on tight to the struggling Fuko. She didn't know what had happened but she knew Fuko was in trouble.

"What's wrong, Michiko-chan?" Sugisaka was the first to arrive in the room and saw the Okazaki daughter clinging to Fuko's neck.

"Obasan Fuko is breathing funny!" Yasuo yelled.

"And she's crying!" Michiko added.

"All right, down you go." Sugisaka separated the scared child from the nearly unconscious Fuko as Koumura also came into the dojo.

"All right now, there is nothing to be worried about." Koumura said while he took a seat in the rocking chair and reached out to Michiko. The boys watched as a tearful Michiko crawled into her Ojiisan's lap and were thus distracted while Sugisaka wheeled Fuko out of the room. As soon as he saw that Sugisaka and Fuko were gone, he smiled and told the children, "It may have been scary for you, but what you just saw is a sign that Fuko is getting better."

"It… it is?" Michiko asked.

"That's right. Fuko-chan has actually been sick for a long long time and just started getting better a few days ago. It's not the kind of sickness that makes you have a fever, or a cough, or a sore throat. But just like that kind of illness, it isn't a good thing. Part of the sickness is that she has a very hard time remembering anything that happened in the last seven or eight years. When she sees or hears, or does certain things, it can bring back a lot of memories suddenly – and that can be difficult for her." the old man knew he was oversimplifying but he was talking to children not yet old enough to be in Kindergarten yet. Their ability to understand more difficult concepts was still a few years away, so simplifying the story couldn't be helped.

"Is that what happened? Was she remembering something?" Yoichi asked.

"But why… why does it hurt to remember things. I remember things all the time and it doesn't hurt me." Yasuo wanted to know.

"You are too young to understand now, but someday… when you are ready, Fuko-chan will tell you all about it." Koumura assured them.

"It sounds like a scary story." Michiko worried.

"It may seem that way because of what just happened, but by the time you are ready to hear the story and Fuko-chan is ready to tell the story – I believe it will be a wonderful and exciting tale." Koumura smiled.

"How can a story about being sick be wonderful?" Yasuo doubted.

"Or exciting." Michiko added.

"It will be a story about a sick person getting well and about having lots of friends. Wouldn't you say that is wonderful?" Koumura asked.

"Yes." the children agreed with the old man on that.

"And, all three of you will be in the story. Now doesn't that sound exciting?" Koumura didn't need an answer. He could see the joy in their little faces and knew that they were already anticipating a story that might need to wait six or more years, before they would be ready to understand it.

.

Fuko was still asleep in the guest bedroom when Tomoya returned. He was home for several hours during the day, but Fuko slept through it all. By the time Kouko and her husband arrived to pick Fuko and Yasuo up at the end of the day, Fuko was feeling much better, but Tomoya and Kotomi had both left for a dinner engagement.

She still had a vaguely uneasy feeling whenever she thought about this _Okazaki Tomoya_ guy… even if she now remembered having wonderful times playing with the children in this house. Just because the children are cute and wonderful doesn't mean the Okazaki guy is too. _Nobody else seems to think he is a bad guy, but for me to feel this way so strongly… he must have done something horrible that only I knew about!_ Fuko wondered if this Okazaki guy was avoiding her intentionally. She was determined to get her answers the next time she visited.

.

 **Tuesday afternoon, October 26 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Kyou had been gazing out the large windows watching the sheets of rain falling from the mass of gray skies overhead. It wasn't until a crack of lightning illuminated the room around her that she realized she wasn't alone. Kotomi was there as well, but she wasn't watching the skies. Glancing to her right, she could see that Kotomi was staring at her… again.

"Kotomi-chan, that is a little creepy." Kyou let her socially awkward friend know.

"I'm sorry Kyou-chan. I was trying to figure out what kind of mood you were in purely by observation. Melissa says I am getting better at it with the people that are closest to me, so I wanted to see how much I could discern with you." Kotomi explained. All the while, she kept watching Kyou… even during the apology. Kotomi had explained several times that she couldn't tell Kyou when she was observing her as some sort of social understanding experiment. _If the test subject knows they are a test subject and that they are being observed, they will behave differently – and that would ruin the experiment._ Kyou understood the argument, but she didn't have to like it.

"So, what have you figured out about me?" Kyou asked.

"You are annoyed with me for observing you again." Kotomi finally looked down.

"Before that though. What else did you see." Kyou didn't dispute the fact that she was annoyed with the girl genius.

"You seemed upset about something. I was able to figure that out fairly quickly. But I was trying to gauge how upset you were so that I might be able to infer what – specifically – you were upset about." Kotomi said.

"What do you mean?" Kyou was still annoyed, but she was curious too.

"If you were a little upset, but not seriously depressed, it would probably be about the weather and how it has ruined your plans for the Koyo trip. If you were more depressed, I would previously have assumed that it was about the rift between you and your sister… but that recently seems to have cleared up. And if you were upset and very angry, It would mean that you found out that I backed over your motorcycle with the car." Kotomi explained.

"YOU WHAT?" Kyou shouted and was about to stomp off to the garage, but Kotomi caught her sleeve.

"Your motorcycle is fine. I just wanted to observe an anger / shock response to use as a baseline for further observations." Kotomi told the fuming friend.

"Kotomi…" Kyou spun around and glared at Kotomi for an instant before she put a hand over her face and counted to ten. When she was able to speak without shouting, she said, "It was the weather. I was really looking forward to the Koyo trip with my class. And, the kids were looking forward to it too."

"It would have been irresponsible to take a class full of children on a road trip, knowing that a typhoon was about to make landfall." Kotomi said.

"I know that. I canceled the trip for that reason. But still…" Kyou felt responsible for everyone's crushed dreams. Especially, Shuichi and Shuji. They seemed to have been looking forward to this trip ever since they came back from Hokkaido with Yuki.

"There is no _but still_. You are an adult who is entrusted with the health and safety of numerous children. You made a logical, correct, and responsible decision. Anyone who doesn't understand that is either a child or is an irrational adult." Kotomi delivered her analysis like a math teacher explains how two plus two equals four. To her it was so obvious as to be a natural fact. She could see no valid argument against this verdict, therefore, there was no valid reason for Kyou to be upset either. And yet… she was. Kotomi found this discrepancy to be very perplexing.

"Kotomi-chan, my students _are_ children, but I know what you mean. I guess it bothers me more because Shuichi and Shuji were looking forward to it so much." Kyou looked back at the rain outside. A typhoon was running along the eastern shores of Japan, but the winds were not so strong in this area. However, the rainfall was torrential. Flood waters had already overwhelmed some of the lower lying areas and forced bridge, road, and rail closings. At an intellectual level, Kyou knew she had made the right decision. If she and her class had been caught out on the roads in this storm… And yet, she had really wanted to give these children an experience that not many kids had.

Kotomi could tell that Kyou wasn't cheering up with simply reinforcing the opinion that she had made the correct decision to cancel the trip. It was therefore, time to go to Plan B. _At one time I thought that I should stop thinking of dealing with people like I deal with strategic decisions. But the more I understand the complexities of interpersonal relationships, the more I realize that one often needs a Plan B, or even a Plan C, D, and E… when trying to resolve a personal problem. And fortunately, it looks like this problem can be solved with simple logistics._

"Yuki-chan has also seemed depressed about missing the trip. I wonder… is it possible for you to reschedule this outing." Kotomi asked.

"I suppose, but it wouldn't do any good. The best colors will be gone if we go to Aomori after the end of the month." Kyou moaned. _By then we would just_ _see_ _a bunch of dead looking trees._

But they would still be nice in another region. Do you have enough time to arrange a trip for the fifth through the eighth of November?" Kotomi asked.

"Huh? That's a rather specific date range, Kotomi-chan. What do you have in mind?" Kyou looked back at Kotomi as she asked. She was a little perturbed to see Kotomi still watching her as if she were still monitoring an on-going experiment, but the question had definitely piqued her curiosity.

"I have arranged something over those dates. I can cancel if it there is not enough time for you to get the approvals from your school." Kotomi said.

"No. That is enough time." Kyou smiled. It was nice to see that Kotomi was trying to help her with her school project but it might not be enough. When arranging a school trip with an age range like this, she would need to be able to make sure of the children's safety, privacy, and supervision. For that, she would need more than two or three rooms, even for a class size as small as hers. "So, what did you have in mind?"

"I have acquired the services of an onsen in the Kurobe Gorge. According to my research, the higher elevations should be in the peak of their fall foliage during that time frame." Kotomi said.

"Higher elevations… Kotomi, you do remember that my class is a bunch of grade schoolers? I can't take them mountain climbing." Kyou could actually imagine Shuichi and Shuji scaling the side of a mountain and Maiko-chan desperately trying to keep up with them.

"Oh, there will be some walking required but no mountain climbing. The gorge has a narrow gauge railroad that climbs up into the higher areas where the onsen is also located." Kotomi told her.

"Oh my, the kids would really like that." Kyou now considered this a much better idea than she had previously thought. She didn't know much about that region and it wasn't in the areas she had researched for her Koyo trip that was supposed to take place two weeks earlier. But she could look up all of that later. Now she wanted to know if it was a realistic goal. She asked Kotomi, "So, how many rooms did you request?"

"I was able to get all of them. I have some rooms in the main building and a few bungalows that are supposed to have splendid views of the stream and the walls of the gorge. According to their web site, the rooms should be able to sleep four people on individual futons. In all, the accommodations should be sufficient for up to forty guests." Kotomi said.

"Forty?" Kyou gasped, "My class isn't nearly that big, Kotomi-chan."

"I am also inviting a few others. But there will be room for you and all of your students." Kotomi tilted her head and waited for one of the predicted responses. She was not ready for Kyou's reaction, but she welcomed it nonetheless.

"Oh, Kotomi!" Kyou stepped into her purple haired friend and wrapped her arms around her in a loving hug. "You always surprise me like this when I least expect it… but when I need it most. What a bland and boring world this would be without you in my life."

"Th… thank you, Kyou-chan" Kotomi cherished the words and hugged her lavender haired friend back. Kyou-chan's response had been outside of the prediction parameters, and Kotomi had been mildly displeased with herself for that. But to see Kyou-chan so happy was well worth it.

.

 **Wednesday afternoon, October 27 – Hikarizaka High School**

* * *

Lunch was over for everyone and they were back in their classes for the afternoon lectures. Most of the rooms were still settling down when the students and teachers all across the school heard the public address speakers crackle to life. Some conversations continued, but most everyone turned toward the speakers and waited to see what unusual thing was going on.

"Attention. May I have your attention, please. At this time, we would like the students who are members of the following clubs, to go to the auditorium. Seniors who are scheduled for mock exams this afternoon are exempt from this meeting, but should check with their club representative at their earliest convenience. Again, we would like the students who are members of the following clubs, to go to the auditorium: The Performance Club, The Karate Club, The Cooking Club, The Dance Club, The Lite Music Club, The Art Club, and the Girls Baseball Club. Also, we would like the students and instructor of class 3-B to also come to the auditorium as well. If you missed any part of this announcement, your sensei should have a list of everyone that should be attending this meeting."

As soon as the announcement was over, many of the first and second year classrooms began emptying themselves of as many as half of their students. In the third year classrooms, the teachers informed their students that they should go to this meeting if they had ever been a member of one of the clubs – since many third-year students had quit their clubs to focus on their mock exams.

Watching from one of the classrooms that overlooked the central courtyard, it looked like there was a fire drill going on with the number of students leaving the classroom buildings and heading for the large auditorium. Some of them were in their gym clothes, but most were in their Hikarizaka yellow winter uniform. All of them were curious and asking or speculating with their friends on what this must all be about.

"Sensei." a male student with a Student Council armband called out to Kouko, "You are needed in the auditorium as well. I have been sent to watch over your class until you return."

"Oh, thank you." Kouko worried that this young man's self important attitude might not mesh well with her class, so she decided to make him a part of the class… if only for a little while, "If you don't mind, could you come to the center of the room."

"Yes sensei." he marched to the middle of the room and stood proudly amidst all the second year art students.

"Now, strip to the waist." she told him.

"Excuse me?" he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"You're going to be here long enough that they can use you as a model, and that would be a real help." then turning to her class and talking over any objections the Student Council representative may have had, she gave them their orders. "I want you all to do charcoal sketches of the upper torso and head. Lower torso and hands are not required. Leave your work on your easels if I don't get back before the end of class. This will count as a test grade, so make sure you work seriously."

"A… test grade?" the young man asked.

"Yes, so pick any pose you like, but make sure it is comfortable enough to stay in for half an hour." Kouko told him as she picked up her purse and quickly left the room. A smile crossed her lips as she thought about how she had just tempered the brashness and pride of the young man. But her mind was also on this meeting. There was something familiar about the list of clubs that had been announced…

.

Yukine waited on the stage of the auditorium and watched as people came in and slowly began to fill the front half of the seats. Fortunately, the stage crew members of the performance club had provided her with a microphone. She was never one to have a loud voice that carried across big spaces. And now, she needed to address so _many_ people. One of the girls in the stage crew part of the Performance Club approached her. She was dressed all in black, and kept out of view of the people in the audience. Yukine thought it was odd that they would go this far since this wasn't really a production. But, they were a proud group and wanted to take this opportunity to show off their craft. With a hand signal, the girl let Yukine know that they were about ready to begin.

The audience got quiet when the large doors closed and the lights dimmed… except for the light on Yukine. Fear of getting stage fright was gone and she was somehow calm as Yukine looked at the sea of inquisitive faces. Knowing it was time to begin, she took a deep breath. It was time for the beginning of the end of the long project she had started at this very high school, so many years ago.

"Hello everyone and thank you for coming. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Sunohara Yukine, although it used to be Miyazawa Yukine back when I was a student at this school. But I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about my best friend. Does anyone here remember Fuko?"

 _Remember Fuko..._

All of the members of the Performance Club smiled when they heard that phrase. But they were the only ones that knew what it really meant.

Yukine was about to specify Fuko by her last name and describe her a bit – to make sure everyone knew who she was talking about. But she needn't have worried. The microphone fell away from her lips in surprise when she saw every hand in the room go up. There were several students named Fuko in the school, but everyone in the audience knew who she had been talking about as soon as she asked the question. The members of some clubs were suddenly looking around and wondering why members of other clubs knew _their_ Fuko.

"I'm guessing some of you are wondering where she has been this past week, and why so many clubs remember her. For those of you that are worried about her, she is doing fine – and thank you for your concern. Now, I would like to ask for your help. Fuko needs you more than you know. All I am going to ask you to do is to visit her and talk to her. This would mean a lot to her, to me, and to her family. But before you reply to this request, please allow me a moment to explain why this is so important, and what has happened to Fuko."

There were a few mumblings in the audience, but all eyes were on Yukine as she took a deep breath and got ready to start the explanation with a question.

"Does anyone here know what an ikiryo is?" Yukine smiled at the curious faces and wondered how many would believe what she was about to tell them.

.

Most of the students believed Yukine. Those that didn't at first, started to believe after they talked amongst themselves. The members of the girls baseball club distinctly recalled Fuko being a very loyal member of the team. Except for a few weeks at the start of summer, she always made it to every practice. Even if she wasn't the best member of the team, she was always trying her best. But the members of the Karate Club couldn't believe that. After all, Fuko never missed one of their sessions either, and many of their club times overlapped. In fact all the clubs activities overlapped with each other at one time or another, and yet… everyone believed Fuko to be a determined member of their own club.

Class 3-B rejected all of that talk. Fuko had been with them since the beginning of the year and she had never missed a class or a study session. Although no-one would say she was the smartest person in the room, she had a knack for the homework as if she had done all the problems dozens of times. Since the beginning of the year, Fuko had helped most of the students with their homework assignments. She was a dependable classmate, so it was hard for them to believe it possible for her to have been involved in all those clubs too.

Yukine sat next to Kouko on the edge of the stage as they listened to the cacophony of argument and revelation. She had told them that, as an ikiryo, Fuko had been attending this school seriously, for the last seven years. She had also told them that she had often been in more than one place at a time. Laughed off as pure fantasy at first, many were coming to the opinion that those abilities were the only way to explain how any of this was possible.

"Why?" Kouko asked Yukine, "Why did you decide to tell them?"

"It's only right. They have been her friends for a long time, you know." Yukine replied.

"But… she had friends before. What about the kids that graduated last year. And the year before. And the year before that?" Kouko asked.

"I have told the members of the Performance Club, every year. I honestly didn't know she was in all these other clubs until a few days ago." Then she gave Kouko a conspiratorial wink and said, "Your sister… is probably leaving this place with more friends than anyone in the history of this high school."

"Yeah… you may be right." Kouko realized that this half full auditorium was only some of the friends she had made. Fuko had watched friends graduate and leave her behind, for the last seven years. And yet, she had been able to make new friends every year as well. She had always thought that her little sister's coma had been a terrible curse, but maybe it wasn't after all. Before the accident, Fuko would cling only to Kouko and would never try to make any friends of her own. And now… "I'm just so amazed that she has made all these friends. If you had seen her before… Really Yukine, you have no idea how much you've done for my sister. I was so worried about her…"

"I claim to be her best friend, but you know who you have to thank for this?" Yukine looked around the room full of kids that had gotten to know the flighty little girl as a club member and a classmate. Then she looked up at Kouko and told her, "If it hadn't been for Okazaki Tomoya and Furukawa Nagisa deciding to help her give away all of those silly wooden starfish, I would not have met her, you would not be married to Yusuke-san, and none of _this_ would have happened."

"I have thanked them before but I will do it properly again. But you deserve thanks too, Yukine-chan! I know you had a lot to do with all of this. If it hadn't been for you helping me to remember the ikiryo Fuko again and again… if it hadn't been for you setting up the Performance Club to keep Fuko involved and remembered by so many… she might have disappeared from all of our memories and been alone all this time. But now, because of your efforts, and all of these friends, all those years she was in the coma may still be full of good memories for her. And, for the _real_ Fuko, she will have friends for the first time in her life. " Kouko bowed to the younger woman and realized just how much this group of friends had truly helped out her sister, and her family.

There was no time to say more. The _talking amongst themselves_ had run it's course and many curious faces were now turning to Yukine and Kouko with lots of questions.

.

 **Thursday late afternoon, October 28 – Shinkansen, Green Car**

* * *

The sleek bullet train rushed through the Japanese countryside at the velocity of an airplane in flight. At these kinds of speeds there should have been noise and vibration, but the smooth-as-glass ride was the pride of the Shinkansen. And the first class accommodations were the pride of the Green Car. Kotomi and Tomoya sat on the other side of a small table from Melissa and Kobayashi Jun. The four of them were on their way to Tokyo where Kotomi would be giving a speech on the latest findings of her multi-verse research.

Kotomi was reading through her prepared discussion notes. Kobayashi Jun was reading through them as well to help fact check them… and to become more acquainted with Kotomi's latest work. Melissa had a stack of papers in her hand as well, but her eyes were glued to the window as the scenery slid by at unbelievable speeds.

"Dammit… we really need these in Texas." Melissa sighed.

"Yeah." Tomoya was broken out of his daze by the quiet comment. Unlike the others, he didn't have the scientific background to fact check Kotomi's speech, so he had been staring out the window at the blur of scenery as well. But Melissa's comment brought him back and made him wonder about something that had always bothered him, "That was something that I always wondered about, while we lived over there. The lack of a decent mass-transit infrastructure was… weird. How can a place with so much wealth, and so few barriers, _not_ have a bullet train?"

"Barriers?" Melissa asked.

"In Texas, the terrain is flat… compared to Japan. You don't have valleys, mountains, volcanoes, rock slides, or earth quakes to contend with. You could build a bullet train at a fraction of the cost that Japan has to pay. And yet, you have nothing."

"Some parts of Texas are… Well, I get your point." Melissa turned back to the big window to watch the blur of landscape zooming by, "I guess it just comes down to politics."

"Oh?" Tomoya replied.

"If you don't have the political will to do something at that scale, it won't get done." Melissa sighed, "And we've just never been able to get enough people excited enough about it to get that political will."

"Hmm…" Tomoya let it drop. From his studies of government and law he knew that _political will_ translated to _funding_. And if you don't have funding, your project is doomed – no matter how beneficial it might be.

"Do you think Kyou-chan is going to be okay?" Kotomi asked when there was a break in the conversation.

"She'll be fine. She has Yuki, Koumura, and Sugisaka to help her, and we've got some pretty good kids. Besides, we'll only be gone for a couple of days." Tomoya assured her, but he knew what her real concern was. And he re-assured her there too, "More importantly, you are going to be okay too. Melissa, Kobayashi-hakase, and I will all be with you. So just relax and concentrate on memorizing your speech. You'll do well."

Kotomi smiled up at her husband and leaned into his arm.

"Thank you, Tomoya-kun. I… I just wish this presentation could be in Hokkaido again. I liked it there." Kotomi might have stretched the truth a bit. She had been scared when she made her presentation in Hokkaido as well, but it was at least a familiar place now. Going to speak at Tokyo-U would mean a new place, in a much bigger city, if front of even more strangers.

"Kotomi-chan, getting to Hokkaido and back in time would mean _flying_." Kobayashi Jun reminded his goddaughter.

"Eep." Kotomi's eyes opened wide at the prospect, and she was now holding onto Tomoya's arm like a lifeline. Although Kotomi now had quite a bit more experience on airplanes… she was still afraid of them. No longer _terrified_ , but still… afraid.

"Besides, I need you to go to Tokyo-U." Kobayashi said while still reviewing the documents in his hands, "One of my colleagues has a brilliant young student there that he wants you to talk to."

"A graduate student?" Kotomi asked. She was always willing to bring more graduate students into the program. So far, the project had made use of graduate interns from several of Japan's better colleges of science and engineering.

"No. He's an undergraduate freshman, but he supposedly shows immense promise." Kobayashi replied.

"A freshman?" Melissa was puzzled, "Surely he has a few years of college before talking to Kotomi-chan will do him any good. As it is, half our graduate student interns can't follow her."

"What?" Kotomi sounded shocked at this revelation.

"It's not that I want him up to speed on the research. My colleague and I just want him to get an idea of how fascinating his future could be if he chooses to pursue his studies in this direction." Kobayashi explained.

"So, he's thinking of getting into some other field of science?" Melissa asked.

"Not exactly." Kobayashi had an amused expression on his face when he explained, "I haven't met the young man myself, but my colleague had a long talk with him about his future. Apparently, there are people in his life that are pulling him in vastly different directions. Although he is very bright and has an interest in science, he is also being pulled toward the entertainment industry, as well as hotel and restaurant management."

"Wow, that's really… diverse." Tomoya said.

"Sounds to me like someone that needs to grow up." Melissa said sagely, "He's probably a kid that still wants to be a star."

"Actually, no." Kobayashi chuckled, "He's not trying to be famous himself, but he is already managing some models, a singing group, and a young idol."

"Wow!" Melissa was impressed. She let her one word reply take back all that she had said about this person's lack of maturity.

"And he's good at math and science?" Kotomi sounded dejected. She was instantly envious of someone that had a good mind for science and yet still had that kind of charisma and charm to make so many friends, and impress so many people.

"Ah… I may be making him out to be a bit more impressive than he really is." Kobayashi remembered the other thing his colleague had said. And this had been a warning more than a recommendation. "He has a problem similar to your friend, Hiroki-san."

"He is also in love with someone from another world?" Kotomi asked.

"Huh? Ah… no. His appearance can be… somewhat frightening. Your first impression may be that he is a bully… or worse. But my colleague insists that he is nothing of the sort." Kobayashi assured them.

Even with her godfather's assurance, Kotomi still turned a concerned glance to Tomoya.

"Don't worry. I'll be with you the whole time." Tomoya said as he took her smaller hand in his.

"Promise?" Kotomi asked meekly.

"I Promise." he said as he squeezed her hand.

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

Koyo trip: a journey in the autumn to view the colorful leaves.

Kurobe Gorge: a deep gorge in the Northern Japan Alps region of the Toyama prefecture. If you want to see what the place looks like, search for "Kurobe Gorge autumn" and look at the pictures. It is a beautiful place that I am sure I will fail to adequately describe. Although it can be reached rapidly by the Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) now, that service has only been available since 2015.

Obasan: aunt

Ojiisan: grandfather

Randoseru: a traditional leather backpack used by elementary grade children in Japan.


	26. Chapter 26 - Ryou's Big Laugh

**Saturday afternoon, October 30 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Tomoya got out of the taxi and helped Kotomi out of the back seat. It had been a tiring trip for her and she felt like she was about to collapse even after having slept on the train and in the taxi. Even though she was only in the first trimester of her pregnancy, this one seemed to be sapping her energy much more that the previous pregnancies had. She wanted to lean on Tomoya but he had to get their bags out of the trunk of the taxi.

"Here you go, Kotomi-chan." Melissa moved up next to Kotomi and offered her arm.

"Thank you Melissa-chan. I don't know why I'm like this. I don't recall being so listless with my previous pregnancies." Kotomi gave a weak smile to her friend as they both walked slowly up the walk to the front door of the familiar house.

Tomoya grunted with the effort to carry all of their bags. Since Kobayashi-hakase had stayed in Tokyo after the presentation was over, and Melissa was helping Kotomi to the door, he was the only one left to carry all of their bags. And Melissa and Kotomi's bags felt like they were packed with textbooks.

He got some relief as soon as the front door was open though. Sugisaka and her cousin were there to help him with the remaining bags while Melissa continued into the house with Kotomi. He was worried about her while he watched her being assisted into the house. But, thanks to one of Kobayashi-hakase's friends who was a medical doctor, he was a little less concerned than he had been before the trip. The doctor had assured both of them that no two pregnancies were the same and it was not unusual for a woman to go through several physical and emotional changes as her pregnancy progressed. It was the same thing he had heard from other doctors during Kotomi's previous pregnancies, but Kotomi had never seemed this drained before. Having heard every doctor repeat the same advice as if it were some rote mantra that was burned into them in medical school was starting to have the opposite effect than instilling confidence. _If she's already this drained now, how is she going to be as the pregnancy progresses?_

He was still thinking about the changes that were ahead for Kotomi in the months to come when he stepped into the living room and heard the shout of over a dozen voices.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Tomoya was momentarily stunned as he looked around the room and saw the happy faces of many of his friends. The Sunohara's were there as well as the Furukawa's… which included Ryou and Ushio. Tomoyo was also present with Isamu. Tomoya noticed that they were holding hands and he also noticed the blush on her face when she met his eyes.

"STOP!" Tomoya shouted back against the merrymakers and instantly had all of their attention. Saying a pleasant _thank you_ to the well-wishers was the normal response so everyone was understandably wondering what Tomoya was up to. Even the children stopped their playing, to see what was going on. "I have had good birthdays and bad birthdays. But at the ripe old age of twenty-five, I have finally determined what it takes to make a really good birthday."

Tomoya looked around the room but there was no response at first. He really thought it would be Youhei that would take the bait, but it was Akio who spoke up first.

"All right brat. Tell us what you have learned from _so many years_ of accumulated wisdom!" Akio challenged – but with laughter in his voice.

"All right… Did Tomoyo-chan make the birthday cake at the Furukawa Bakery?" Tomoya asked the room as if he were proving a point in a courtroom.

"Ah!" Tomoyo blushed a little more at having been singled out.

"Indeed she did!" Akio chuckled as much at Tomoyo's embarrassed reaction as at Tomoya's theatrics.

"Did she have the help of Sanae-san or Yukine-chan?" Tomoya continued his prosecution while pointing out the two named suspects.

"Both of us, actually." Sanae answered sweetly. She didn't mind being a part of Tomoya's entertaining improvisation, but she would have a word with him later about why he called her Sanae- _san_ instead of Sanae- _chan_.

"And finally, did Tomoyo-chan allow her imagination to run free with the creation of said birthday cake?" Tomoya directed the final question at the fiercely blushing platinum blond in the room. Once again, everyone in the room turned to see Tomoyo's reaction… and her reply.

"Yes." Tomoyo was able to respond in a fairly normal voice despite the crimson blush on her face, and the fact that all the attention in the room had just been leveled at her.

"In that case, I am certain that this will be a truly wonderful and memorable birthday party and everyone present will be showered with blessings and luck." Tomoya concluded his delivery to the sound of applause and cheers.

"So he can say that kind of thing too? I wonder what happened to the practical-joking and cynical boy we used to know." Sanae said to her husband. There had been a bit of nostalgia in her voice. She liked the man that he had become but she also missed the youthful boy he had been when he had pulled Nagisa out of her shell and helped her to find friends… and love.

"Oh, he's still there. I'm sure of it. He has gotten a lot better at knowing his audience though." Akio replied.

"Yes he has." Sanae agreed. Then she told her husband, "You need to stop calling him _brat_. He is truly a man now."

"Oh? I think there is still some brat left in him." Akio retorted, then slyly pointed out, "I noticed he called you Sanae- _san_ instead of Sanae- _chan_. Are you sure that little jab wasn't unintentional?"

"Hmph… Okay, you can keep calling him _brat_ … for now." Sanae relented.

.

The newest member of the growing collection of children was running around with the other kids as if they had been friends for years. She was a little shy around new adults, but not terribly so – which was pretty normal for any child. Tomoya noticed that Ushio did not seem to have the shyness issues of his daughter Michiko, nor did she have the social ineptness of her mother Nagisa either… at least around other children her own age. For their part, almost all of the children had also incorporated Ushio into their play and had quickly accepted her.

Only Michiko still seemed a little shy with the newcomer. But no-one believed that this was anything she felt against Ushio personally. Michiko had always been painfully shy and had taken a while to warm up to new faces… and make new friends. Well, not quite _always_ …

Her singular exception was Sunohara Yoichi. But she hadn't been an exception for him. Brushing aside barriers like shyness or fear was the norm for this wondrous child. Not yet five years old and little Yoichi's charm was approaching legendary status with everyone that knew him. Without even words… only a smile and a tilt of the head, he had been known to stop fights, comfort the unhappy, encourage the frightened, ease tensions, and make friends. As a preschooler, his vocabulary wasn't all that large, but when he did use words, it was as if they were infused with the magic of peace, courage, and introspection. Normal in most ways, he wasn't physically strong for his age and it was too early to tell if he was going to be a Kotomi-like genius. But there was nothing normal about his charisma – it was as if he walked with the grace of Benzaitennyo-kami or Omoikane-kami. More than one person who had been awed by the little boy had asked Yukine what shrines she had visited during her pregnancy.

Tomoya had noticed how attached Michiko had become to the charming Sunohara boy and thought it was cute. His only concern was one of jealousy. He doubted the preschoolers had developed a more adult sense of love yet, but he knew that wasn't the only source of jealousy either. Michiko already thought of Yoichi as _hers_ , so if he suddenly started playing with Ushio a lot… he might end up with the sticky situation of both of his daughters fighting over the same boy. Fortunately, that hadn't been the case yet. So far, Ushio had been more interested in getting to know her Onii-chans. Just as fortunately, Yoshino Maiko hadn't taken Ushio's interest in the boys as a threat to her. She appeared to be fine with the boys having another younger sister and even took an interest in playing dress-up with Ushio.

It wasn't until Tomoya noticed little Maiko and her younger brother Yasuo playing with the other children, that he realized he hadn't seen Yusuke or Kouko. And of course, Fuko. _Come to think of it, I haven't seen Fuko since she woke up from the coma. Well… I haven't seen her awake anyway._ Tomoya remembered looking in on her when she was staying at his house during the day. Although she was asleep, he could still see the differences between this real girl and the ikiryo he had known. Unfortunately, the most obvious differences were that the ikiryo had looked a lot healthier than this girl. But Kouko had told him that it was normal for someone who had been in a coma for so long and that her health would come back with physical therapy and time… probably.

"Hey, something bothering you?" Kyou asked as she sidled up to him with a couple of slices of cake on two small plates.

"Just wondering where Yoshino and Kouko are," he took one of the plates from Kyou and continued, "and a little worried about Fuko."

"We were kinda hoping your train would be late." Kyou said with a chuckle, "They had an appointment at the Hospital for Fuko that they couldn't reschedule."

"Is she okay?" Tomoya put off biting into the cake he had lifted almost to his mouth.

"Oh yeah, it was just a routine thing. But it will affect her next round of physical therapy, so it was too important to miss." Kyou told him. Then she asked, "What's the deal with Kotomi?"

"I think this pregnancy is affecting her a lot more that the others. She always seems to be drained of energy… or at least it has seemed like that for the last week." Tomoya replied.

"What did the doctor say?" Kyou asked.

"The usual. Every pregnancy is different and this is within the normal parameters for this stage of the pregnancy." Tomoya replied dryly.

"You have a problem with doctors, Tomoya...kun?" Ryou picked up on Tomoya's discontent with the medical opinion he had been given.

"Not all of them. But I also don't think they are flawless just because they finished medical school." Tomoya answered.

Ryou knew that some doctors were better than others and that there were some pretty bad ones out there that shouldn't be practicing medicine. But the taunt about medical school was too much. She was about to retort when he suddenly looked directly at her and spoke first.

"I would feel a lot more confident if it was you, Ryou-chan. I know you're good. I trust you and can believe in you. And if you said the same thing… maybe I would trust the other doctors more." Tomoya looked back at his cake. He knew that Ryou and Kyou had made up, but he didn't know how much Ryou had been able to forgive Kotomi and himself for stealing her Onee-chan away from her for so many years.

"But… I'm not a doctor yet. I'm still in medical school!" A flustered Ryou replied.

"No, but this isn't about pieces of paper." Kyou said as she took her stunned sister's hand, "This is about who you believe in. And, of course he's going to believe in you, Ryou. After all, you saved his life twice, before you were even out of high school!"

"I…" Ryou started to understand Tomoya's comments, but she still didn't think she warranted that kind of belief. After all, the kinds of things she did back in high school was more like first-aid than medicine. Comparing that to determining the health of a pregnant woman were two entirely different things. And yet, she could see that he was honest about his feelings and it was unlikely that she would be able to dissuade him with mere argument. "I will look at Kotomi-chan if you want me to."

"What… really?" Tomoya was surprised. He and Kotomi had asked before but, up until now she had flatly refused.

"But… if I do find anything that is different from what your regular doctor found, you have to promise me that you will get a second opinion from another licensed doctor before you do anything else!" Ryou insisted.

"It's a deal." Tomoya agreed quickly before Ryou had a chance to change her mind.

"Excuse me," Tomoyo was standing near to them and looking pensive. Then she seemed to be addressing Kyou as she asked, "May I borrow Tomoya for a few minutes?"

"Yes, but not for too long." Kyou smirked and looked back across the room at Isamu who was talking to Akio at the moment, "We don't want Isamu getting lonely, do we?"

"Kyou!" Tomoya scoffed at his lavender haired companion as he took Tomoyo's arm and guided her out to the patio. The sun was still fairly high in the sky so it was cool, but not too cold even if it was almost November.

Tomoyo stared at the well manicured back yard and sighed. She had made the decision to do this some time ago and she wouldn't back out now. Initially, she had balked at the idea of confronting Tomoya over something like this on his birthday, but she suspected that… he already knew. And it was time… it was past time to get this done. She just had to find the courage so say the words now.

"You're dumping me." Tomoya said as he looked out at the same back yard flower garden.

"Yes… so you did know." Tomoyo was relieved. But, at the same time she felt a loss. This was the arrangement they had made when she was still in high school and he was already married. An arrangement that would never have worked if he had been married to anyone else but Kotomi. Tomoyo would remain Tomoya's girlfriend until she found someone as good as him… or better. Not only had Kotomi condoned such an arrangement, she had practically set it up.

"So, you finally found someone better than me." Tomoya didn't sound disappointed. In fact, he was happy for her. He knew that she had struggled with her feelings for a long time and was glad to see her finally moving forward. More than once, he had wondered what would have happened if Kotomi had extended the offer to Tomoyo to come to America with them as well. But he knew why she didn't. It wouldn't have been a problem for Kotomi, but it would have broken Kyou… and Kotomi had a very strong attachment to Kyou.

"No, not better." Tomoyo smiled as she told her now ex-boyfriend, "But he is as good as you… to me."

"I guess you'll start forgetting about me now." Tomoya chuckled.

"I will never do that, Tomoya." Tomoyo turned to him and told him seriously, "You were my first love. I learned a lot from you. You were the one that showed me that not all men are… like my father. I cared for you deeply and… I still do. But…"

"But there is someone else in your life now. Someone who makes your heart flutter. Someone you miss when they're not there. Someone you can trust. Someone that comforts you just by being there." Tomoya watched her eyes open wide as he laid it out for her.

"Yes… yes, that's it exactly!" Tomoyo was a wonder with words when it came to public speeches or government documents, but waxing romantic had never been her forte. She hadn't thought it had been Tomoya's either, but he had changed a lot in the last eight years. And even if the change was good, she would always know that his heart belonged to Kotomi first. But for Tomoyo – that was a contest that Isamu won, and where Tomoya couldn't even compete. In Isamu's heart, she was his one and only love.

"I know this sounds odd, but I am happy for you." Tomoya gave the platinum blond a parting hug. He was about to joke with her and tell her, _Now you should go back inside and be with your true love, while I decide whether to jump off the bridge or hang myself from a tree._ But at the last moment, he remembered what had happened to her brother. Years ago, when she was in middle school, he jumped from a bridge into a river – to try to keep his parents from divorcing. The act had crippled him for the rest of his life. Instead, he watched her go back inside, then turned to stare up at the passing clouds for a few minutes.

.

Kyou was waiting for him when he came back in. She didn't look mad, but she did have the what-was-that-about look on her face. Tomoya thought about joking with her too, but the lesson outside had been a strong one. A little joking could hurt someone a lot, and her place in their relationship had always been a sensitive spot for Kyou.

"I'll tell you everything, but you have to promise not to gloat." Tomoya said quietly.

"No." Kyou smirked.

"Then I won't tell you." Tomoya smirked back.

"Fine, then I'll just ask Kotomi and then I'll smirk all I want." Kyou raised an eyebrow on her smirk.

"Okay, but you should know… I don't plan to tell Kotomi until she is past her postpartum.

"Eh?" Kyou did an internal calculation, "But that won't be until… next June!"

"Maybe even longer. Who knows when the pregnancy will be over and there is no definite time on a postpartum, so…" Tomoya knew that Kyou was impatient when it came to things like this.

"Fine! I promise not to gloat. So just… tell me." Kyou pouted.

"All right then. Since you did promise not to gloat and I know you to be a person of your word, I'll tell you." Tomoya was drawing it out for fun now and Kyou knew it.

"Just tell me, Okazaki!" Kyou hissed through her clenched teeth.

"Tomoyo officially dumped me." Tomoya said simply. He knew from experience that the time to taunt Kyou was over when she resorted to using his last name.

"Eh? Really?" Kyou's attitude suddenly brightened.

"Yup, just now on the back porch." Tomoya confirmed.

"So the weird indeterminate boyfriend – girlfriend relationship is finally over?" Kyou's eyes opened wider and she did look like she was on the verge of gloating,

"Completely." Tomoya assured her.

"Oh… well then. Um… will you excuse me for a moment?" Kyou asked politely.

"Of course." Tomoya smiled and watched Kyou casually walk out onto the back porch and carefully close the door. Then he watched out of the corner of his eye as she turned and faced away from the house.

"YES!" Kyou roared at the sky in a tremendous shout. Several people inside the house looked around and tried to figure out what the loud noise they just heard was, and where it had come from.

"Onee-chan?" Ryou recognized the voice and turned around in time to see a once again composed Kyou coming back into the house from the door to the porch. She was about to ask her sister what the commotion had been about when she noticed the expression on her elder sister's face. She could never recall seeing her sister looking so relaxed and stress free. Although she wondered what could have made such a change in her onee-chan, she didn't want to disturb Kyou's state of bliss with useless questions.

Kyou walked back to Tomoya. She took his arm and leaned into him. Those were things she generally avoided when they had company over. Especially if that company included Tomoyo. But she didn't care now. Her feelings were soaring across the sky like a high flying bird and she could care less what all those little people down on the ground were thinking.

Tomoya smiled and patted Kyou's head. She tolerated a lot in their relationship and the things that she had put up with, had not always been to her liking. But she had weathered those storms nonetheless. If she could find some moments of pure happiness in this, he wouldn't hold that against her. After all, it wasn't _really_ gloating.

.

A sudden noise of cheering and welcomes came from the entryway and most of the adults not already there turned to see what was happening. A familiar voice was heard through the hallway and an instant later all the children except Ushio were running toward the front door. Kyou turned to Tomoya and smirked.

"Well, you said you were worried about Fuko, here's your chance to see her finally awake." Kyou said. Her smirk faded at the end though, and she turned to see what Tomoya was staring at.

In the middle of the living room, Ushio stood alone with a confused look. All of the children had suddenly run off as if there had been some kind of signal that only she didn't understand. Tomoya walked over to the girl that looked like a small and very cute version of Nagisa… but without the hair antennae.

"Are you okay?" Tomoya asked the child.

"Uh huh." Ushio looked toward the entryway and asked, "Where did they all go?"

"They have a very good friend who just arrived. You'll see her soon. She came here from an appointment at the hospital and she may be in a wheelchair, but she's a nice person and all the kids like her. I'm sure she will be your friend too." Tomoya encouraged the child. He was also trying to let her know that the other kids weren't running away from her so much as they were running to greet someone that had just arrived.

The crowd moved back into the living room and the wheelchair came into view. There were several people in the room but Fuko's eyes were locked on little Ushio as if she was seeing one of her precious starfish.

"Is… is it really you?" Fuko looked to be on the verge of tears. "Fuko has waited for you for so long! Is it… really you?"

Ushio looked up at Tomoya… the man that said it was okay to think of as her father. She wanted to tell him that she didn't know this person. She wanted to ask him what was going on. But he was already looking at her and smiling.

"It's okay. Her name is Fuko-chan. She is the one that loves to play with all of your friends and they all love her too. She is a good person and she is a friend of your mother and father in this world." Tomoya assured the child. But he also played the father role too, "But if you aren't ready to meet her… if you feel shy, you don't have to."

"Will you hold my hand?" Ushio asked him. She had the courage to meet the lady in the wheelchair alone if she had to, but it would make her feel better if her father was with her.

"Of course." Tomoya picked up Ushio in one arm and walked over to the waiting Fuko. As they approached, both of them watched the happy woman struggle to raise her weak arms up to them.

"Please? Can Fuko please have a hug?" the wheelchair bound girl pleaded.

Now close enough to see the rapturous look in the woman's face, Ushio found her courage again and reached out to Fuko. Tomoya knew that Ushio was willing and lowered his daughter into Fuko's lap and the waiting embrace. From carrying her, he judged Ushio to be fifteen or sixteen kilograms and worried that his daughter's weight might be too much for Fuko, in her weakened state.

For Fuko, the hug with this particular little girl was like a key that unlocked a torrent of memories. They were memories that went back much farther than anything else she had remembered so far. She remembered her sister's wedding, meeting Ushio in that cold little shack, saying goodbye to Yukine when she graduated and left the school, watching Ushio fall away from her while Okazaki-san pulled her away, long talks with Yukine in the reference room, and… falling in love with Sunohara Youhei. Happy moments and sad moments that had occurred so many years ago were impacting her now in rapid succession, and she was feeling every emotion as if it they were brand new experiences.

"NOOOOO!" Fuko cried out in agony and elation. She wasn't riding an emotional roller coaster of continuous highs and lows so much as she was feeling all of the highs and lows at the same time. The pain of losing her first crush to her best friend tore her heart apart. And, at the same time, she knew that the three of them had become the best of friends such that watching the two of them get married to each other was pure joy. But she couldn't turn away. She wouldn't turn away – as painful as the brokenhearted moments were, she had never imagined that she would have such good friends and such amazing moments in her life.

When the reel of memories was finished spinning through Fuko's head, she was physically spent. Her arms fell down to her sides but she was still conscious. She knew that Ushio was still in her lap and was holding onto her and patting her head while she cried into the child's chest.

"Thank you, Ushio!" Fuko said through her sobs. Then she raised her head to Tomoya and said, "Fuko thanks Okazaki too. You kept your promise to Fuko. Thank you very much."

.

 **Wednesday morning, November 3 – Hikarizaka High School**

* * *

It was time for the annual cultural festival. In the years where the Cultural Day holiday fell close to a weekend, the Cultural Festival might span several days. But this year it fell in the middle of the week, so the high school had only a single day to show off to the community, the prospective middle school students, and alumni.

The local middle schools would be having their Cultural Festivals as well so, by tradition, the middle school programs would wrap up shortly after noon and that was when the high schools would expect a great influx of next year's potential first-years. That being the case, the morning productions were primarily for the community and the alumni.

In the auditorium, the stage crew was busy getting the props in position for the first show of the day when one of the audience doors opened and several figures walked in. One of the students was about to tell the early arrivals that the show wouldn't start for another hour and to please come back at that time… when she stopped in her tracks. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the person being pushed in the wheelchair.

"Fuko-chan!"

Outside the theater, a few people paused for a moment when they heard the delighted screams coming from the auditorium. There was little concern since it was known that the Performance Club would be putting on several shows throughout the day, and they were know for coming up with some rather… unique presentations.

By noon, Fuko had been able to visit all the clubs that her ikiryo had been a part of. Or at least, all the ones that Yukine had been able to determine. Now she was emotionally exhausted and sitting at a table in the café that classroom 3-B had set up. Even here, she was introduced to another room full of people that she was only beginning to remember. Sitting with her at the table were Yukine, Kouko, and Yusuke. Youhei was with Tomoya and a few others who were tasked with watching all the younger children for the day. This way, Fuko could feel free to express her full range of emotions without worrying the children. And she did.

Everyone she met seemed to bring back some kind of memory. Then there were the people who brought back more than just memories and she would find herself laughing and crying as they held each other. There were several times that she wanted to stop. She thought seriously of asking her sister to just take her home and let her rest. But with every person she met, it was like getting another puzzle piece that was making an incredible picture with dazzling colors – where before there had been only a gray emptiness.

It helped that it hadn't been a constant turmoil since she had arrived here. Yukine and her family had insisted on taking several breaks and letting her recover her emotional strength before moving on to the next venue… and the next round of re-introductions.

"Hello, Fuko-chan." a tall, skinny boy sat down in the chair next to her. He was trying to smile, but he was obviously nervous as he opened up to the girl in the wheelchair, "Although… I guess it really should be Fuko-san… I guess. Are you really twenty-four years old?"

"Yes… but it still feels weird for Fuko to think about being that old too." Fuko admitted. She was fidgeting too. She still didn't recognize this boy and didn't feel any memories coming back yet.

"I guess it's good that I was a coward then. Or this would hurt a lot more." the boy fumbled through his words.

"Huh?" Fuko still didn't understand what it was he was trying to say.

"You might not remember me. I… didn't stand out much. But, well… I had a crush on you since the beginning of the year and… um…" his voice faltered and he looked down at his hands.

"You liked Fuko?" Fuko asked in surprise. This had been completely unexpected for her. Before high school she had never even had a friend, much less a boyfriend. In elementary school she had been taunted as _the weird girl_ by all the boys. She had avoided all the boys in middle school since they were only ever mean to her. So the idea of there being a boy that actually liked her was… unbelievable.

"Yeah… I guess that sounds pretty stupid huh? I mean… for a guy like me to say something like that to you…" the boy was still looking down at his fidgeting hands.

"No. It's not stupid." Fuko unsteadily reached out to the boy and told him, "This is the first confession for Fuko. Or at least… it is the first confession Fuko remembers. But Fuko is an adult now, so…"

"Yeah, heh heh." it was clear that the boy was getting ready to retreat. After all, Fuko wasn't the teenage girl he though she was after all. She was old enough to legally drink alcohol and he wasn't yet out of high school.

"Ahem." Yusuke was looking out the classroom's window and didn't want to interfere with Fuko's re-acquaintance with her friends, but this was something he couldn't let go. "I don't see a problem with it. As long as your feelings are true, what do a few years matter?"

Fuko was about to insist that, since she was now an adult, it wouldn't be right for her to even think about a younger boy like that. But she saw Kouko's smile as she reached over and took Yusuke's hand. Fuko remembered that her sister was several years older than the man she loved… the man she married and made a family with. Her eyes were wide and her mouth fell open as a sudden realization hit her. She had almost said something very hurtful to her beloved sister… all because of her pride at being an _adult_.

Fuko turned back to the young man sitting next to her and considered her options. It would be so easy to slide back into her old ways of isolation and dependency on her sister. Certainly, there was comfort there. It would be so easy to return to the way things were… but something felt unsettling about taking that route. Her ikiryo had worked hard all these years to give her a more diverse life with more friends and fun than she had ever thought she would have. To abandon all that effort… was not something she was willing to do.

"Fuko is very weak and can't come to school any more. Fuko is getting stronger and some day Fuko will be able to walk without this wheelchair. But it might take a long time." Fuko explained to the teen sitting next to her.

"I… I see." he thought this would be his refusal and was getting ready to leave the table when he heard her say something very hopeful.

"If you want to visit Fuko and talk… maybe even push Fuko around in the wheelchair… Fuko would like that."

"Yes!" the young man replied in unexpected and happy surprise.

.

 **Thursday morning, November 4 – Ichinose residence**

* * *

Ryou, Nagisa, and Ushio arrived not long after Kyou and Yuki had left for work with the two Okazaki boys. Nagisa was her cheerful self and had quite the loving smile as she held her daughter's small hand. She was there to watch Ushio while she played with Michiko, but Ryou was all business as she approached Tomoya and laid down the law.

"I've already told you that I'm not a licensed doctor. I can't write any prescriptions and I can't tell you what to do. Nothing I say will carry any weight at any hospital or with any doctor. All I can do is observe and suggest. And if I do make a suggestion, you have to promise me that you will see another doctor and get a valid opinion." she sounded like she was somewhere between defiant and cross.

"I understand all of that, but…" Tomoya was cut off by a very adamant Ryou.

" _Promise me_ , Tomoya-kun!" Ryou didn't shout, but her expression said that this was not something she would be flexible on.

"I promise! I promise." Tomoya held his hands up defensively at Ryou's demand. Then he sighed and told her, "Ryou-chan, I understand that you don't like me very much. I think I know why too. But the fact is, you are the most trusted person in the world when it comes to our health."

"I…" Ryou tried to respond, but this time it was Tomoya that was insistent.

"Don't you know why Kotomi wanted you in charge of the recovery team? She cares about those guys and she cares about Tomoyo. Tomoyo goes through hell every time her boys go out on a mission. So Kotomi wanted someone she could trust to do the best job possible. She also wanted someone who could instill trust and assurance with Tomoyo. If you want to talk about credentials, sure there are people out there with more or better credentials than you. There may even be people out there with a background that lends itself to this kind of job. But we don't know anything about them and – lives are on the line. Kotomi has complete trust in you, and so does Tomoyo. Her boys know you are still a medical school student and they're thrilled that you are running the team. Believe me, they wouldn't have it any other way. So stop worrying about not having a piece of paper."

"What about you, Tomoya-kun" Ryou was a little afraid to hear his response, but she needed to know, "Do you trust me too?"

"Implicitly." Tomoya replied.

"How can you?" Ryou challenged him.

"How can I what?" Tomoya was pretty sure what Ryou was going to say.

"How can you trust me so much when I…" Ryou's civil sensibility caught up before she said something too insulting. But Tomoya made it obvious that he knew what she was thinking when he paraphrased her sentence.

"How can I trust you so much when you don't trust me?" Tomoya felt the sting of the insult, but it wasn't anything he didn't already know. After a deep breath he admitted, "Don't think that your distrust of me doesn't hurt. But I know that I hurt you far worse than that."

"You…" _You took my onee-chan away from me!_ She wanted to scream, but she knew that wouldn't solve anything. Instead, she decided to test him. "Tell me the truth, Tomoya-kun. Even if it hurts to hear it… I have to know. Do you really love her? I need to hear it from you! I need to know that she's not just a plaything. So please… please tell me the truth!"

Tomoya pulled the agitated Ryou into a hug. It wasn't the romantic hug of lovers, but more like the kind of thing family members would do when one of them was sad or upset. Ryou could even feel the difference. She had never had a brother, but this felt like a sibling consoling her. She was unprepared for how good it felt to be comforted and found herself hanging onto him and burying her face in his shoulder.

"I do love Kyou-chan. If something happened to her… or if she had to leave us, I would be devastated." Tomoya said softly.

"But… but Kotomi…" Ryou stuttered.

"I'm pretty sure you've figured this out already, but Kotomi-chan loves Kyou-chan too." Tomoya confirmed.

"Ye… yeah. I had an idea." Ryou had been suppressing her own observations for so long, it almost felt like a surprise when Tomoya said it. But it wasn't. Living with Nagisa, she knew how to spot the signs of a girl in love and she had seen Kotomi like that a few times when she was with Kyou. "I… I need to be honest with you too. I don't dislike you, Tomoya-kun. I don't dislike Kotomi-chan either. I was mad for a long time, but… I'm getting better."

"I am very happy to hear that." Tomoya patted the back of her head that was still buried in his shoulder.

"I… EEEEEEEEP!" Ryou yelped as she felt another set of arms wrap around her and two large breasts push into her back."

"Ryou-chan, you don't know how happy it makes me to hear you say that." Kotomi purred into Ryou's ear. "It has always saddened me that you were upset with Kyou-chan, Tomoya-kun and me. I was quite pleased when I heard that you patched things up with your sister. But to hear that you have forgiven us as well makes me feel as light as air."

The two breasts pressing into her from behind didn't feel as light as air and the embarrassment they were causing Ryou was starting to make her face burn. She let go of Tomoya but it didn't do any good. Kotomi's arms went past her and around Tomoya so that they were making her into an Okazaki sandwich.

"Okay okay!" Ryou cried out, "I'm starting to overheat in here. Don't we have a health exam to do today?"

"Yes, Ryou-chan!" Kotomi immediately let go and took a step back.

Ryou was finally able to push away from Tomoya and turned around to find an even more embarrassing sight.

"You're… you're… you're naked! Kotomi-chan, why are you naked?" Ryou squeaked.

"Oh?" Kotomi tilted her head and asked, "Does not one disrobe for a health exam?"

"Eh!" Ryou's face went through a rapid sequence of expressions as she went from the initial shock, to embarrassment, through disbelief, and a final accepting – and face palming groan. "Oh Kotomi-chan, you must drive my onee-chan absolutely insane."

"Um… no, I don't think so." Kotomi replied as if it had been a question directed at her.

"Yes you do." Tomoya corrected his wife.

"I do? That's terrible, Tomoya-kun! Insanity is not a good thing." Kotomi sounded genuinely worried.

"It's okay. It's the good kind of insanity. The kind that keeps things interesting." Tomoya assured her.

"Oh. Well then… I retract my denial. Apparently I do drive Kyou-chan insane." Kotomi said with a pleased smile since it was the good kind of insanity.

Ryou looked at Kotomi's face to see if this was some kind of a joke but she appeared to be completely sincere. She turned back and looked at Tomoya who did look a bit more like he was enjoying a good joke, but still… this wasn't so bad. It was the kind of thing that would tilt her onee-chan's sensibilities, but it was also the kind of thing that would make her laugh. And right now, Ryou was feeling that laughter boiling up inside. There was Kotomi… standing there without anything on but the hair baubles she always wore. Her large breasts, her slightly swollen belly, the curve of her hips, and her long legs… all without a care in the world. What was worse was the innocent and curious expression on her face like this was the most normal thing in the world. The laughter built gradually, but build it did. Years of exasperation and stress came flowing out with the guffaws. Ryou sank to her knees and clutched her aching sides as she laughed long and hard. After several minutes of side splitting laughter, she finally started to calm down. With Tomoya's hand, she stood back up, dusted herself off, and turned to the still naked Kotomi.

"All right, let's get this exam started." she said with cheerful motivation.

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Benzaitennyo: The goddess of flowing things: words, knowledge, speech, eloquence, and music.

Omoikane: The god of wisdom, intelligence, and good counsel.

Sanae-chan vs. Sanae-san: There are three ways that these suffixes are differentiated. The chan suffix would be used for someone the same age or younger, or someone who is very familiar. The san suffix could be used to indicate a person who is more respectable. Sanae is upset because she likes to be considered with all the younger girls and wants Tomoya to use the chan suffix on her too.


	27. Chapter 27 - The Koyo Trip, part 1

**Thursday morning, November 4 – Ichinose residence (continued)**

* * *

The dojo was tense at first. Nagisa sat next to a standing Ushio. But little Michiko was hiding behind Sugisaka's legs. Michiko didn't have her brothers and she didn't have Yoichi with her this time. Aside from the two adults, she was alone in the room with Ushio… and she didn't like it. Not so much that she didn't like Ushio, she still wasn't sure of that. It was just that she would rather someone else be there too.

Sugisaka had a particular affection for Michiko, but she didn't like the way the child was behaving. If it had been any other child, Sugisaka would have been tempted to smack the kid on the back of the head and yell at them to stop behaving so foolishly. But this was Michiko. And then of course, the other adult in the room was Nagisa. The one she had bullied so long ago. It was a mistake that led to a most fearsome encounter with Fujibayashi Kyou… and an opportunity to change her life. She had taken advantage of that opportunity to some degree. But she always wondered if her life would have gone differently if she had grasped that opportunity and wrung it for all it was worth. Now, this was Michiko's opportunity and Sugisaka was determined to make sure Michiko took full advantage… even if she didn't understand what was being presented to her.

Michiko nervously jumped when Sugisaka started moving. But she didn't have to go far. Sugisaka was soon sitting on the floor next to Michiko like the way Nagisa was sitting next to Ushio. She wanted to crawl into Sugisaka's lap, but that was impossible. Sugisaka had taken Michiko by the shoulders and was looking into her eyes. Red-brown eyes peering into deep purple eyes for several seconds before Sugisaka started talking.

"You know, your mother is going to have another baby, right?" Sugisaka asked the child.

"Yes." Michiko answered and bit her lower lip.

"When that happens, you won't be the youngest child any more, will you?" Sugisaka stated more than asked.

"I… I guess not." Michiko said in a defeated voice. She had always been _the baby_ of the family. Michiko had never thought about it before, but now it felt like she was losing something special.

"Whether that baby is a boy or a girl, you are suddenly going to be that child's onee-chan." Sugisaka pointed out.

"Me?" Michiko asked in amazement.

"That's right. And what kind of onee-chan will you be? Will you be a nice onee-chan or a mean onee-chan? Will you be a friendly onee-chan or a shy onee-chan? When your little brother or sister looks up at you, what kind of person will they see?" Sugisaka asked the little girl.

"I… I want to be a good onee-chan!" little Michiko proclaimed.

"I'm sure you do. But can you? That baby will be here before you know it. Will you be ready? Will Michiko be ready to be a good onee-chan?"

"Yes!" Michiko asserted.

"Let's see then." Sugisaka challenged the preschooler, "You have a little sister right here. Show me how good an onee-chan you can be."

Ushio had been quietly watching the conversation. This Michiko was the girl that had been in the same room with her several times, but only when there were other kids there… and they had never talked. But it was just the two of them now and Ushio wondered what it would be like to talk to the girl with the purple eyes. She watched as the other two finished their conversation and then saw the purple eyed girl take a couple of tentative steps closer.

"W… w… would you like to c… c… color with me?" Michiko forced the words out as best she could. She desperately wanted to run back and hide behind Sugisaka, but she also wanted to prove that she could be a good onee-chan. However, having asked the question, she started to panic that Ushio wouldn't want to color and she would think it was a stupid idea. Her eyes closed and fists clenched in anticipation of the rejection.

"Yup!" Ushio sounded delighted, "Coloring is fun!"

.

Kotomi couldn't seem to get comfortable. Lying down would put pressure on her back, sitting started to hurt her hips, and standing was painful on her legs. At eleven weeks, her body hadn't drastically changed yet, but there was still a lot of discomfort. Much more than there had been in either of her two previous pregnancies. She tried losing herself in her work, but after a while, it was impossible to ignore the pain.

Ryou had put Kotomi through her paces. After convincing her to put some clothes on, she observed Kotomi walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Something didn't seem right and it was bothering her, but Ryou only knew what she had learned in school and had no personal knowledge of such things. And that made her reticent to say anything. But she would honor the agreement with Tomoya, and if he didn't do his part – she would never do this for them again.

"This is going to sound weird, but are you sure you're only eleven weeks along?" Ryou asked Kotomi.

"Of that, I am certain. Why do you ask?" Kotomi responded.

"It's just that… your symptoms are common for someone in their second trimester. I just don't know if this is too early for those symptoms or if you are feeling them early because this is not your first pregnancy… I can make some ergonomic recommendations, but you really need to see an obstetrician."

"I already have an appointment for her, next Wednesday." Tomoya assured Ryou. Then he asked, "So, what are these ergonomic suggestions?"

"Let's see…" Ryou was already relieved to know that Tomoya had taken her seriously about the second opinion and felt better about giving them her recommendations now. "Kotomi has high arches, so she should box up any shoes that don't give her good arch support. That should help with the standing and walking. A lower back support cushion and better sitting posture would help with the sitting pain. The pain she has when lying down has me stumped though. If she was farther along in her pregnancy, I would suggest sleeping on her side with a body pillow behind for support, but her belly isn't large enough to need that yet."

Kotomi unconsciously rubbed her hand over her belly that was slowly growing as it worked to prepare a new life. She knew her belly would get large over the next six months, but it was no longer something to dread or fear. She had been through this twice and Tomoya had insisted that she was beautiful in every stage of her pregnancy. That had always been enough to sustain her when the negative thoughts about getting fat started creeping in.

"What is the lowest setting on your bath?" Ryou suddenly asked.

"I'm not sure. Why?" Tomoya replied.

"If it can be set as low as thirty-seven or thirty-eight centigrade, she might be able to find some relief in the water's buoyancy." Ryou offered.

Tomoya was about to ask why the water had to be so cool when he remembered one of the warnings about overheating while pregnant. Even in the first trimester, it could cause damage to the developing fetus. He turned to his wife and worried that she might have accidentally…

"Don't worry, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi smiled, "I have been limiting my time in the water and I never let my core temperature go over thirty-eight degrees."

Tomoya believed Kotomi but he wasn't sure if that was enough. For confirmation, he turned to Ryou.

"That should be fine, Tomoya-kun." Ryou also assured him. Her eyes opened a little wider when she realized the implication of what just happened. Tomoya had already told her that, when it came to their health, he trusted her more than any other doctor. But he had just turned to her for confirmation after talking to his wife… Kotomi! The super-genius Kotomi… the one who discovered how to open doorways to other worlds. He had told her that he trusted her implicitly, but to see it to this degree was… staggering.

"To be safe though, the bath temperature should be lowered to thirty-eight degrees. Then Kotomi-chan can relax as long as she wants – with no danger to the baby." Ryou suggested.

Kotomi had a pained look on her face but said nothing.

"What?" Ryou asked. It felt like she had said something wrong, but she was sure that the advice had been sound.

"It's just that… if the bath water is that cool, who would want to stay in there any longer than they had to?" Tomoya tried to keep from laughing as he explained Kotomi's hurt look to Ryou. He knew how much both Kotomi and Kyou liked to soak in a nice hot bath. And now it would be off-limits… at least for Kotomi-chan.

"We're going to get another doctor's opinion to make sure Ryou-chan is right. That was part of the deal wasn't it?" Kotomi held out for a glimmer of hope only to hear her husband dash it.

"Yes, we see another doctor next Wednesday, but Kotomi-chan," Tomoya knew he had to burst her little bubble of hope before she started counting on it too much, "I am pretty sure the doctor will say the same thing as Ryou-chan."

"Aww." Kotomi looked from Tomoya to Ryou and back again. Then, in a crestfallen way, she said, "I would like to say that you two are just being bullies. But I know that you are both trying to do what is best for me… and for the child. I will miss the hot baths, but for the health of my child, I will do as you say. And… I thank you both for going to this trouble for me."

"Kotomi-chan," Tomoya took his wife's hands and held them until she looked up to meet his eyes, "after it is all over and you have recovered from your pregnancy, I promise to take you to any hot springs you want to go to. How does that sound."

"And Kyou-chan? Can we bring Kyou-chan with us next time? I missed her so much on the last trip." Kotomi was over her brief sadness and sounding excited again.

"But if we took Kyou-chan, who would take care of the kids?" Tomoya asked. That had been the reason they had given Kotomi for why they had gone on different vacations last time. And the next time, there would be the added burden of an infant to take care of.

Ryou had been watching the two of them and was struck by just how emphatic Kotomi was wanting Kyou to be with them. Any doubts that Kotomi had not fully accepted Kyou as an equal and a real member of her family were dashed then. Ryou was again dismayed at her own behavior these last several years. Silently, she vowed to make amends not just to her onee-chan, but to Tomoya-kun and Kotomi-chan as well. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her.

"Nagisa-chan and I can do it!" Ryou told them.

"Huh?" Tomoya had almost forgotten that Ryou was still with them while he was dealing with his wife.

"After the baby is born and you three want to take a vacation… Nagisa and I can take care of the kids." Ryou promised.

"Are you sure?" Tomoya didn't want to press Ryou into something like this so soon after she had started to accept Kyou's role in their relationship, but he could also see her determination.

"Yes!" Ryou knew that Nagisa would be thrilled to have the chance to look after so many kids and, being honest with herself, she discovered that she was looking forward to it too.

.

 **Friday afternoon, November 5 – Unazukionsen Station, Toyama Prefecture**

* * *

Several train connections would have to be made before the group would make it to the town of Unasukionsen, which is the entrance to the Kurobe Gorge. Normally, one would think that traveling with seventeen grade school age children and three high school girls would be an exercise in anxiety. For the potential predator or pervert who thought they might be able to distract one of the children for a little fun, they were dissuaded from such thoughts by the eight dangerous looking men who were in the same group.

All of Tomoyo's boys, as well as Tomoyo herself had been invited on this scenic vacation. They weren't traveling in their familiar workmen outfit on this trip though. Kotomi didn't have the energy to do it herself, but she had sent Melissa with Tomoyo to take all of her boys to a mens clothing store. The goal was to properly attire all of her boys in clothes that were comfortable, and yet would look good on screen if they were suddenly interviewed. There had been some resistance from the former street fighters at first, but after Melissa and Tomoyo's reactions to seeing them in fashionable clothes, they now looked like respectable members of society. Well… almost. There was just no hiding the dangerous beast inside, no matter how well the slacks and the sport-coat fit the man.

Also joining in on this trip were Youhei and Yukine, the four younger children who weren't old enough for Kindergarten yet, Sugisaka, and Kouko with three of her best art students. Tomoya had asked Sugisaka to come along to help watch over the children as well, but she would also be handy to help Kotomi if she were starting to feel too much pain, get fatigued, or need help in the women's baths. In all, there were eighteen adults coming along to enjoy themselves – and to help out with watching the twenty kids. Even if Kotomi's health meant that Tomoya and Sugisaka had to concentrate on her, it was an adult-to-child ratio that any field trip organizer would be thrilled with.

It was fortunate for any potential perverts that their curiosity dropped when they saw Tomoyo's big boys. They would never know how close they came to an even greater danger, had they tried to lay a hand on one of the children or one of the high school girls. If any ethically challenged individual had survived the wrath of either Kyou or Tomoyo, they would have then been arrested by Youhei and likely would have spent the rest of their days wondering how their lives had gone so horribly wrong, in so little time.

But there were no problems. No matter how crowded the trains were, or how busy the platforms or stations were, all the people around them were exceedingly polite. Indeed, for this field trip and group of vacationers, this was certainly starting off to be a very relaxing trip.

When they finally arrived at Unazukionsen Station, it was mid afternoon and everyone was hungry. There had been lite snacks along the way, but no-one had eaten a proper meal since the very early breakfast before getting on the first train. Kotomi had originally planned to eat at a restaurant in the Toyama City Train Station before catching the train that would take them on to Unazukionsen, but there was so much construction in the train station that there was nothing to eat but vending machine snacks. It seemed that Toyama would soon be getting a Shinkansen connection and hundreds of workers were busy getting the station updated and ready for the much anticipated bullet train service.

Fortunately, there was an onsen hotel with a restaurant between the regular train station they had just left, and the Unazuki narrow-gauge train station where they would board the smaller train that would take them up into the nearby mountains.

"I want a hamburger!" one of the children yelled as they walked up to the restaurant.

"Not this time." Kyou replied in her firm sensei voice. She could tell from the look of the place that the fare here would be traditional Japanese food and perhaps some local elements, but it was unlikely that they would find any western style food here. "This place has a buffet and you can eat whatever you like, but they won't have hamburgers here." There were a few sounds of dejection but many more voices sounded interested in trying the variety of things on the buffet.

Kyou glanced over at the high school girls that were clustered around Kouko. They were no longer as skittish as they had been. There had been a little fear and even some second thoughts, when they met Tomoyo's boys in the pre-dawn hours at the train station. Several hours had passed since then and the girls were much more relaxed now. Certainly seeing the romantic play between Isamu and Tomoyo had gotten their interest. Then, the onii-san way that Mikio was looking after Huyu and his friends had a positive effect too. And finally, they weren't so unobservant that they didn't notice the ojisan-like way all the rest of them shepherded and protected the children… including the high school girls. Watching the teenage girls had made Kyou reminisce about her own high school days and how they never seemed like they would end… right up until they did. There was a brief melancholy, but Kyou was much too busy to have time to focus on it now.

Tomoya and Kotomi were walking behind the rest of the group. In part, so that they could make sure there were no stragglers, but also because walking quickly was painful for Kotomi. As the rest of the group got farther ahead, Tomoya wanted to pick up the pace. But a look at Kotomi told him that she was already at her limit.

"Are you going to be okay?" Tomoya asked his wife. He wasn't looking forward to this Koyo and Onsen trip so much that he wouldn't be willing to take his wife home if this was too much for her.

"Thank you Tomoya-kun, but I will be okay." to reinforce her claim she added, "I'll be able to rest for a bit while we eat. And again when we ride the little train. The walk from the last train station to the Onsen may be difficult, but once we're there I will be able to slow down and go at my own pace."

"Kotomi-chan, this isn't like pushing yourself to be brave enough to ride on the motorcycle." Tomoya reminded his wife of the time she had decided to fight her fears and ride on the motorcycle with her husband during their summer vacation.

"I am well aware of that Tomoya-kun. Your concern for our next child is heartwarming." Kotomi said.

"Hey," Tomoya stopped her and turned her to face him when he told her, "I'm concerned about you too. There is no need for you to run yourself ragged if you don't have to." Tomoya wished, not for the first time, that Ryou and Nagisa had come along on this trip. He had a feeling that if Ryou told her to slow down, she would do it. But since it was only her husband saying it…

"Thank you, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi stepped into Tomoya and hugged him close. "I really do appreciate your concern, but I need this in a completely different way. Even though I may be in some physical pain, it feels so wonderful inside… inside my heart! To be here with you and Kyou-chan, and Melissa-chan, all of our friends, and all of the children. It's really just so… wonderful!"

Tomoya said nothing but wiped a single tear from her eye. He often forgot how meaningful _family_ was to Kotomi. His own father had slowly disintegrated while Tomoya was growing up, and that had been a bitter and painful experience. But Kotomi had dearly loved her parents and they had been ripped away from her in a single horrible moment. _Baka! I am a clueless freaking idiot after all. Of course this kind of thing would have a special meaning for Kotomi. What is a small amount of pain to someone who is enjoying the miracle of friendship and family after being alone for so long?_

"I'm sorry if I'm being selfish, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi looked up into Tomoya's blue eyes and saw that they had already softened with compassion.

"No. I was the one being stupid." Tomoya pulled her back into the hug and promised, "We'll make it to that Onsen if I have to carry you there myself."

Kotomi almost asked how he would be able to carry her and deal with all the luggage. But she knew that his statement was emotional and probably did not include a logistics review. However, knowing her husband, there was an eighty percent chance that he would simply say that Youhei would carry it. The remaining twenty percent included variations of Tomoyo's boys or telling her not to worry about the details.

She closed her eyes and remembered a similar moment not too long ago, during their summer vacation on Tanegashima. He had held her in his strong arms and she had felt his warmth all around her, and within her as well. It was a feeling that was more than just the transfer of heat from one body to another. Something that transcended physics had stirred her up inside. Pulse and breathing changed. Her legs felt weak. But it was so much more than that. She had felt the affects in her heart… in her soul.

For many years after losing her parents, her heart had become cold to _feelings_ because all of the feelings were painful. Excitement and fun would inevitably be followed by loss and sadness. Such was the logic she had used to close herself off from the rest of the world and the pain that the rest of the world wanted to bring her. She believed that she could defeat the horrible aching loneliness by simply embracing the belief that she was alone of her own free will. And, since it was her choice to live that way, she could handle being alone. After all, there was a difference between alone and lonely. Being lonely was an emotional response, but being alone was a logical choice. So year after year, she isolated herself and built a wall of ice around her wounded heart.

But that carefully constructed wall had been no match for the conflagration that was kindled within her when she was reunited with the first, last, and only friend she ever had. Even if he didn't remember her at first, there was no stopping her own feelings. The ice wall had moaned and shrieked as her own feelings raged like an inferno and melted years of assembled protections. _No, Kotomi! Don't do it! It will only be pain for you! He will just leave again! Everyone leaves you in the end. Don't_ _make_ _yourself_ _vulnerable to_ _that terrible pain again._ _The consequences are too dreadful. Stay safe with me… behind my wall!_ _I will protect you…_

But she wouldn't listen. It felt incredible to be with Tomoya-kun again. She couldn't stop herself even if she had wanted to… and she didn't want to. Every moment with him was a re-awakening of what it was like to be human again. To feel love. To be loved. Even her senses had come alive from a long slumber. Sounds were more dynamic, colors were more vivid, textures, smells, and tastes were more wonderful than she had ever remembered them to be. The critical moment came when he helped her to make her first new friend… other than himself. The realization that she could have friends. Many friends. Friends that would call her by name. Friends to go shopping with. Friends that would actually come to her birthday party…

And that wonderful feeling in her heart never tapered off. Every morning that she woke up and found herself next to Tomoya-kun was like waking up from a wonderful dream and finding out that it was real after all. He really cared for her. He really loved her. It had been no more than a fantasy at first. A dream as powerful as her desire to see her parents again. And like that desire, she had believed it to be impossible too. And yet, it was a dream somehow made real for Kotomi and she would always treasure it.

"I am much better now." Kotomi took Tomoya's arm and turned toward the restaurant. "Let's catch up with the others and have some lunch."

.

 **Friday late afternoon, November 5 – Unazuki Narrow Gauge Train Station**

* * *

The white building with the green roof had an alpine look to it. The main terminus for the little trains wasn't the only one to look that way though. As a tourist destination, many of the buildings and houses in this valley had an alpine appearance that made the whole town look like a themed section at an amusement park.

The narrow-gauge trains didn't carry the look though. The electric engines were painted a bright utilitarian orange. The open cars with bench seating were also painted orange on the bottom with white canopy roofs. The children all wanted to ride in the open cars, but Kotomi had purchased all their tickets for the seats in the enclosed cars both for the children's safety, and for the adults' comfort. They would still be able to see quite a lot though. They may have been enclosed, but the white and red cars had huge picture windows all around. Although a lot of the trip would be inside deep mountain tunnels, there would be many parts where the passengers would have grand views of the river below and the beautiful foliage of the trees along the steep mountain walls of the gorge.

As soon as the little train left the station, it went into the first of many dark tunnels. But this was a brief one and they were soon crossing the long red railroad bridge that many considered to be the true beginning of the gorge. This was the lowest and warmest part of the gorge, but already, they could see many yellow and orange leaves of the Japanese maples on the steep hillsides. Out the windows on the right side of the train they could see the Kurobe River below the dam, and the big onsen resort built right on the edge of the river. Out the left side of the train, they could see the bright red pedestrian bridge that also spanned the Kurobe River and the town of Unazukionsen already looking far below the level of the train.

Through another dark tunnel and into a spectacular view of the first of several dams they would see.

Through another dark tunnel and then they could see the big lake that the dam had created.

Through another dark tunnel and into the light…

Kotomi's eyes drooped as they went through a succession of dark tunnels and spectacular sunlit vistas. By the time the train stopped at the first station, she was leaning into Tomoya and fast asleep. The talk and laughter of the people around her didn't wake her. Even the occasional shout of an excited child was something Kotomi could sleep through now. Tomoya had his arm around her and held her through the occasional jolts and sways of the miniature train cars as it climbed higher and higher into the gorge. She was missing some stunning scenery, but Tomoya knew that getting her rest was important too.

.

 **Friday evening, November 5 – Keyakidaira Narrow Gauge Train Station**

* * *

When the little train finally reached their destination, the shadows were long in the valley and there were more passengers than just Kotomi that had to be roused from sleep. Several of the younger children had been too excited at the beginning of the narrow gauge train ride and hadn't lasted until the end. The first thing everyone noticed when they stepped out of the train cars was that it was quite a bit chillier than it had been at the bottom of the gorge. The adults were digging into the luggage to fetch out the coats and sweaters that everyone would need on their walk to the onsen where they would be staying.

The train station looked new and well maintained… if boring. It looked like it had been designed with the industrial art concept that had been popular in the later half of the previous century. With steel support beams visible, and a color scheme that looked like dried mud, it looked like it would have made a good museum in a port city's industrial district. But for a resort and vacation destination, most agreed that the alpine theme from Unazukionsen would have been a better look.

But the better memories come from the places where the people are friendly and pleasant. In that regard, no-one at the Keyakidaira station could be faulted. There were a number of attendants there to help them as if they knew that a classroom full of children were arriving. Since a number of the adults ended up carrying tired children, the help of the attendants in fetching the luggage was much appreciated.

Although the sun was still high enough in the sky that it would be a few hours before sunset, the tall and steep mountains around them had completely blocked out the evening sun and the walk from the station to the hotel would be in shadows. The overhead sky was a bright and vivid blue, so the shadows weren't terribly dark. It was bright enough that the sleepy children were soon waking up and wanting to see all the new sights around them.

Even in the dull illumination of indirect sunlight, the tree's colors were impressive at this elevation. There were more Larch mixed into the trees of the hillside and their leaves were like an explosion of bright yellow. The Japanese Maples that had been yellow and orange at the lower elevations were now bright orange to dazzling red.

Kouko wondered how much more impressive the scenery would be under the full light of the sun. The three students she had brought with her had all shown promise with oil paints and their gear had come with them. She looked forward to seeing how her students would translate the splendor of nature to the canvas.

The younger children… and a few who were just afraid of heights, clutched the hands of the adults as they crossed the tall red pedestrian bridge that spanned the gorge to the other side. A few of them didn't want to cross the scary bridge, but it couldn't be helped. The path to the Onsen where they would be staying was on the other side of the bridge. The others, who weren't afraid of heights, thought the red bridge was just another beautiful sight in this panorama of beautiful sights.

On the other side of the bridge, they came across several young women wearing pastel pink Komon Kimonos and pulling some empty wagons with them. They waited until Kyou had made it to them and called out to her.

"Excuse me, but are you Okazaki-sama?" the shorter of the three girls asked.

"I…" Kyou started to reply, but Melissa interrupted her.

"Yes, she is!" Melissa said with a smile, "But then, we have several Okazaki-samas with our group. How can we help you?"

"We are from the Onsen where you have your reservation. Our manager thought you might have a difficult time since there are several children in your group, so she sent us to assist with these wagons." the short one explained.

"How extremely thoughtful! Melissa said as she put her own suitcase on one of the carts. Then turning to the group she told them, luggage on the carts everyone!" With a barely hidden smirk, she watched the young girl's faces begin to blanch as the carts were soon heavily loaded with all the luggage. Melissa knew that the route from the bridge to the Onsen was mostly uphill. She could read the expressions on the girl's faces and knew that they were starting to worry if they had the strength to pull the laden wagons back to the Onsen.

"Melissa-chan," Kyou said quietly, "you're being a bully to those girls and you know how Kotomi feels about that." Kyou knew she should warn her friend, but she was near laughter herself at the little prank Melissa was pulling.

"Don't worry. I'm done with my joke now." Then turning to where Kenta, Ryota, and Takeshi were standing in a group, she said, "Why don't you three take those wagons and talk to the pretty girls on the way back to the Onsen, eh?"

"Yes, Melissa-sama!" the boys moved quickly to take the handles from the girls and introduce themselves.

"You…" Kyou had a hand on Melissa's shoulder and was using it as support to keep herself from falling down. She was trying desperately not to laugh out loud, but the effort was almost too much for her. She couldn't help but admire the skillful way Melissa had just played the onsen girls. For that matter, she had also just played the boys into eagerly taking care of everyone's luggage. "You are a borderline delinquent. You know that, right?"

"What are you talking about? That's just something I learned in English class." Melissa said innocently.

"English class? I don't remember any lessons like that." Kyou knew she had gone to a different college than Melissa, but how different could an English class be?

"No? When you get a chance, you should look up the practical lessons of Tom Sawyer. I found it to be very… educational." Melissa replied.

Kyou could see the mirth in Melissa's eyes and knew that she would indeed need to make that inquiry. But it would have to be another time. As weak as the cell phone signal was up here, she seriously doubted they would have internet access at the remote onsen Kotomi had found. But then, this was a vacation… of sorts. And being away from technology for a little while wasn't a bad thing.

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Komon Kimono: A casual wear Kimono worn by both married and unmarried women. Usually a subdued, neutral, or pastel color with a repeated pattern (paisley, houndstooth, small flowers, etc.).

Ojisan: uncle

Onii-san: big brother

Onsen: the hot spring, and the facility (hut, hotel, resort) built around the hot spring

Shinkansen: bullet train


	28. Chapter 28 - The Koyo Trip, part 2

**Saturday morning, November 6 – Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

The night had started off with Tomoya, Kotomi, Shuichi, and Shuji in the same room – on four different futons. But Kotomi couldn't get comfortable so Tomoya stacked their futons and cuddled her until she was able to drop off to sleep. By the time they woke up in the morning, Tomoya was surrounded by bodies. Both of the boys had dragged their futons up next to their parents and the twins' sleeping positions were... chaotic, to say the least.

Both of them were laying half on their parents an half on their own futons. Arms and legs all over the place and their blankets were wrapped around their bodies as if they had been spinning in their sleep. As uncomfortable as they looked, they both seemed to be sleeping well. Tomoya could only look at them and wonder if his own body had ever been so flexible.

"Tomoya-kun, are you awake?" Kotomi asked quietly.

"Yes. How are you feeling?" Tomoya hoped she wasn't in so much pain this morning.

"I am… hungry." Kotomi answered. When she tried to roll away from Tomoya to stretch out, she dislodged Shuichi, who fell with a muffled _thump!_ Fortunately, his futon was under him or he might have ended up with a bruise on his face.

"Huh?" Shuichi said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. The room was confusing at first, but he saw his father looking at him with an _are you okay_ look. He was about to say something when his tummy rumbled loudly.

"Well that settles it." Tomoya said as he gently shook Shuji, "Let's go get some breakfast!"

.

Michiko and Ushio were in another room with Kyou and Yuki. Initially, the adults had worried that Michiko might cling to Kyou due to her shyness, but she was still in the futon next to Ushio when the alarm on Kyou's cell phone went off. Kyou was looking at the two little girls in the early morning darkness of the room. The way they were sleeping, it almost looked like the girls had been holding hands at some point during the night. Kyou caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Yuki also looking at the little ones.

"Sugisaka did good work yesterday." Yuki quietly commented.

"Indeed she did." Kyou replied. Despite Sugisaka's worries, Kyou didn't hold a grudge from all those years ago. But Kyou could tell that she still made the former kohai nervous. She had tried her best to put Sugisaka at ease, but to no avail. Despite her best efforts, the poor girl was still skittish whenever Kyou was around.

"She's actually a pretty decent person. It's too bad you like scaring her so much." Yuki said while brushing her hair out.

"What?" Kyou's attention was off the girls now and she was looking at Yuki in surprise.

"You know… the way you sneak around and scare her out of her wits when she's least expecting it. I'm sure you're getting some kind of perverse thrill out of torturing her, but sooner or later you're going to drive that poor girl insane." Yuki finished with her hair and turned to Kyou just in time to see her lunge.

.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek" a harmony of frightened voices could be heard out in the hallway.

Tomoya, Shuichi, and Shuji happened to be walking by on the way to the dining room when they heard the screams. Tomoya knew instantly that it was the door on his left and recognized Michiko as one of the voices. He immediately threw open the door and charged in to stop whatever mayhem or threat that might be scaring his daughter. However, his eyes beheld a bizarre sight before he was half way through the door.

"Eh?" was all he could get out. To the right, holding each other in fright, were Michiko and Ushio. They both looked as if they had just woken from the same bad dream. But in front of him was a naked Kyou who had his cousin Yuki, pinned to the floor. There was too much momentum and not enough time to stop, so Tomoya ended up falling into them – his weight pushing Kyou down onto Yuki.

"Oof!" Yuki grunted at the sudden impact of both Kyou and Tomoya's weight on top of her.

"Tomoya! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kyou shouted angrily from in between the two Okazaki bodies.

 _I charged in here because of the frightened screams from two little girls. Pray tell Kyou, what could have scared these children so much?_ ...was what he wanted to ask her. But he knew what that would do to her psyche. Instead he called out to his sons, "Could you boys help Michiko and Ushio into their robes and go on down to breakfast? Papa needs to talk to Kyou-mama for a minute."

Kyou gasped and her eyes opened wide. So intense was her need to punish the taunting and teasing Yuki, that she had completely forgotten about the children in the room. _No! What have I done? Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! I'm such a fool!_

"It's okay, they're just roughhousing like Shuichi and I do." Shuji told the girls

"It just looks scary because they're bigger, but they're just playing around. It'll be okay." Shuichi added.

Tomoya could feel Kyou's body stiffen up and then her shoulders started shaking. He knew she was crying, but there was little he could do about it until the children were out of the room. Looking past Kyou's lavender head, he could see Yuki looking miserable for her part in whatever had led to this. He knew that the two of them had become good friends since Yuki had started helping Kyou with her school project. It would take something pretty severe to make them suddenly hate each other, so Tomoya figured it was probably just some teasing that got out of hand.

"We'll be going first then." Shuji called out as the four children filed out of the room.

Tomoya waited to move until he could hear the sound of the partition door closing. But, there was one last little voice before the door closed.

"Papa, please don't be too mad at Kyou-mama." Michiko implored.

"I won't." Tomoya was about to promise that he would be nice, but he heard the sound of the door sliding shut and knew that it was safe to have an adult conversation… at least a quiet one. It wasn't safe to have normal conversations when the doors and walls were made of paper. Tomoya rolled off the two girls and took Kyou with him. She wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but Tomoya wouldn't let her. He pulled her into a hug and just held her for a while.

"I'm sorry, this is my fault. I was teasing her about Sugisaka." Yuki admitted.

"Sugisaka?" Tomoya hadn't guessed that as the impetus for whatever had happened.

"You know… how Sugisaka is always so skittish whenever Kyou is around." Yuki explained.

"Oh that." Tomoya took a deep breath and explained to his cousin, "Something happened a long time ago between the two of them. Unfortunately, it seems to have left Sugisaka with a life-long fear, and Kyou with a life-long regret."

"I… I'm sorry, Kyou-chan. I didn't mean to…" Yuki stuttered, but her cousin rescued her.

"It'll be okay. Just get your robe on and go see to the children. Kyou and I will be down in a little bit." Tomoya told Yuki.

Even though it might be cowardly and irresponsible to run away from the mess she had created, Yuki realized that Tomoya probably knew the best way to deal with Kyou after something like this. She retied her robe and hurried for the door. Before she left and closed the door behind her, she quietly said, "Thank you, Tomoya-kun."

Stepping into the hallway, Yuki almost ran into Kotomi who was standing at the door and smiling. On the verge of tears, Yuki was about to hurriedly tell Kotomi not to go in the room, and that Kyou and Tomoya were…

"I know." Kotomi smiled and patted the younger, but somewhat taller girl on the head, "Don't worry about Kyou-chan, she will be okay."

"But…" Yuki's guilt demanded that she confess her transgressions to Kotomi, the patron saint of _no-bullying_.

"Put your faith in Tomoya-kun. He will know what to do." Kotomi smiled reassuringly up at Yuki and told her, "You should go on down to the dining room. Most of your students are already there."

"Thank you, Kotomi-chan." Yuki bowed and hurried off to the dining room.

.

Inside the room, Kyou clung to Tomoya but she was inconsolable. She had done that which she swore she would never do. She had frightened children… and to make it worse, they were her own children. At least… she thought of them that way. But after this… would they want her to be their Kyou-mama any more? And Tomoya… there was nothing he could say to make this better. This had been the ultimate sin and there was no going back. There could be no forgiveness for such a deplorable failing. She was spiraling from one depressive thought into another as the tears rolled down her cheeks. In the midst of her self loathing, she felt her head turned and the shocking feeling of lips on her lips.

"Unh!" she grunted but she couldn't speak. Tomoya's grip was strong and his lips brooked no compromise. This was a passionate, tongue to tongue, soul searching kiss – and it was throwing all of Kyou's thoughts and feelings into complete chaos. Part of her wanted to protest and stop this madness. _How can he kiss me after what I have done? I don't deserve this! I shouldn't be rewarded like this… I should be punished like the monster that… AHHHHHHHH!_

Tomoya was only holding the back of Kyou's head with one hand. He used the fact that she was already naked to his advantage and moved the other hand down to her breast. It seemed that she didn't notice until he firmly squeezed her breast and rolled a sensitive nipple between thumb and finger. Then, Tomoya could see her wide open eyes as her body suddenly went stiff and she screamed into his mouth. But he gave her no time to put up a defense. By the time her hand had moved to protect her breast, his arm had moved down… between her quivering legs.

"No! Tomoya… you can't… You can't reward me for… what I have done." Kyou was finally able to speak, and new tears accompanied the words of guilt and self loathing.

"You think you have done nothing worthy of a reward?" Tomoya could feel both of Kyou's hands wrapped around his wrist now. When she was truly mad, she had the strength to break his arm. But now, she was barely able to keep his hand a few centimeters from the her most private place.

"No, I…" Kyou closed her eyes and turned away from Tomoya. His words reminded her of what she had just done. But the closed eyes didn't help her to escape – her memory brought back the image of the two little girls huddled together in fear… of her.

"Baka!" Tomoya kissed the side of her face and gently told her, "So you scared them unintentionally? You think a parent never did that before? What is important to me is how you reacted."

"Huh?" Kyou turned back and found Tomoya's face so close that he was speaking into her ear.

"You weren't cold, callus and uncaring – as if their existence is meaningless. You were mortified because you care for them so much… because you love them." Tomoya backed up a bit so he could look into her eyes as he told her, "You see yourself as a monster. But I see you as someone who is full of so much love, that the monster inside will never stand a chance."

Kyou was stunned to her core. Her lips trembled and tears were still rolling down her face when her strength gave out and there was no more resistance to Tomoya's passion. Indeed, after another of Tomoya's fiery kisses, she was returning his passion with her own fervent embrace. _Oh Tomoya, do you really see me like that? If only I could see myself the way you see me…_

.

Outside the room, Kotomi stood quietly and listened. Everyone else had gone down to breakfast now and there was no more need to guard the door. But the _oh_ and _ahn_ sounds coming from the room were comforting to her. The two people she loved most in the world were making those sounds together and that could only mean that the pain had been blunted, guilt had been absolved, and love had triumphed. In the balance of things, being late to breakfast was a small price to pay for such a splendid victory.

.

 **Saturday late morning, November 6 – Sarutobikyo, or Jumping Monkey Gorge**

* * *

Kouko and her high school art students left the onsen immediately after breakfast. They were a bit laden with their easels, canvasses, and paints as they walked the long path back toward the station. But, at least it was down hill. However, the thought did dawn on them that the walk back would be all uphill…

Fortunately, it wasn't too far to their destination. After making it back across the long pedestrian bridge, they were able to take a short break before heading out again. They would be going to a place where Kouko had been told would be an excellent location for her students.

What was described as a ten to fifteen minute riverside walk took the girls a little longer since the path was more of a trail than a sidewalk and they were still carrying all their art gear. But when they were finally there, they all agreed that the trek had been worth it.

The walls of the gorge were so close that it was believed that the local monkeys would jump across it from tree to tree over the swift moving river. Standing on the observation deck and looking at the view before them, they could all believe that story. The walls of the gorge were impossibly steep and covered with explosions of red, yellow, orange, and green. Those intense colors were bordered below with white shale on the banks of the river, and the vivid blue-green of the clear and swift water. The sky above was a pale blue that signaled the coming of winter.

Kouko watched her students diligently setting up their easels and trying to find the best view for their painting project. It was such an amazing view, she wished she had brought along something to paint with as well. But, it was her job to teach now and leave the joy of painting to her eager students. _But still… I want to come back here. Perhaps next year when Fu-chan is fully recovered and Yusuke can get some time off work, we can all come out here as a family._

"Hey ladies!" a familiar voice called out shortly after the girls had started to put down their first brush strokes.

Kouko turned to see Mikio and a few of his friends along with Huyu and some of Kyou's older students. They were wearing rugged clothing and carrying canteens. She didn't know the other children's names aside from Huyu, but it looked to her like Mikio had the three oldest boys and the biggest girl from Kyou's class. With a growing concern, she waved Mikio over.

"Mikio-kun, this is supposed to be your vacation too, you know. If Kyou-chan is saddling you with her students, you let me know and I'll get that fixed." Kouko said confidentially to the big man.

"Aw no, it's not like that at all, sensei." Mikio chuckled a little as he replied, "This is nice. I ain't never been a onii-san before and… I kinda like it."

"All right. I'm actually glad to hear that. After all, Kotomi invited my students and me to come along on this trip and the last thing I want to do is cause trouble. But Mikio-kun, there is something I need to warn you about." Kouko said seriously.

"Eh?" Mikio was caught a little off-guard by Kouko's sudden sincerity and worried that he had done something wrong.

"The way Huyu follows you around. I don't think he sees you as an onii-san. You're more like a hero to him now. That might make you feel good, but it can be dangerous too. He'll want to do the things that you do and he'll want to keep up with you even if it's hurting him." Kouko warned the man about Huyu's feelings, but she was also thinking about her own daughter as well. Ever since the night that the exploration team came back with Ushio, her daughter had also been idolizing Mikio-san. Kouko didn't blame either of them though. With his good natured disposition, strength, and conviction to his friends – it was easy to see him as a heroic figure. In fact, it was more difficult to imagine that he had ever been a gangster.

"I'll be careful, sensei." Mikio assured her, "We're gonna have some smaller kids with us on this little hike so we'll be takin it real easy-like. We'll take lotsa breaks and drink lotsa water."

Kouko was reassured. From just the sound of his voice when he responded to her, she could tell that he had already thought about the fact that he would have to be aware of the children's needs. There were several nature trails leading off into the steep ravine. The signs at the start of the paths had symbols to indicate the difficulty and Kouko was glad to see that Mikio and Takeshi hadn't chosen the more difficult trails when they headed out with their charges. She had thought they would travel together, but Mikio took off with Huyu and the only girl, while Takeshi started down another trail with the two younger boys.

She had believed that was all of them when she heard the sound of a chair scooting across the wooden deck behind her. At the rear of the deck, where Kouko and the girls that were concentrating on their painting, Kenta and Ryota were getting comfortable. They were sitting down to a game of Gomoku under the sprawling branches of a shade tree that still had it's leaves.

.

 **Saturday noon, November 6 – Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

Kotomi had been able to sleep for a while after her breakfast and felt better than she had earlier in the morning. But the aches and pains remained and there seemed to be no escape from it while she was awake. However, Tomoya was watching her with a smile as her eyes fluttered open and she had the distinct feeling that he was being sneaky… but in a good way… probably.

"Tomoya-kun, where is everyone?" Kotomi asked when she noticed the quiet.

"Kyou took one group back down on the train to visit the children's museum. From the sound of it, they'll be away all day. Kouko took her art club members, and Mikio took Kyou's older students to the Jumping Monkey Gorge. Since Kouko's group is out to do some painting, they'll probably be back around mid-afternoon." Tomoya told her as he offered her a hand to help her up.

"So, we are alone here?" Kotomi asked.

"For now." Tomoya helped her to the door and added, "Well, the onsen staff is still here. But we are the only guests around at the moment."

"Tomoya-kun. I'm sorry for being a burden to you. I doubt you would have liked to visit a children's museum, but I think you would rather enjoy watching a bunch of jumping monkeys." Kotomi frowned.

"That's just the name of the place. I don't think there are any monkeys jumping around there." Tomoya tried to keep from laughing as he started to unveil his surprise for her, "Besides, I arranged something special for you."

"Oh?" Kotomi then noticed several of the onsen staff smiling and waiting for them, outside a dimly lit room.

"I had a talk with the staff. I explained to them that you couldn't partake of the hot springs because of your pregnancy and how you are in pain all the time. And, they arranged all of this for you."

Kotomi looked in the room and saw massage tables laid out. As an educated person, she knew that the old superstition about massages causing miscarriages was baseless, but a lot of misguided people didn't know any better. Because of that, many establishments refused to give a massage to a pregnant woman because they might end up in court if anything happened to the woman's pregnancy. And unfortunately, courtrooms weren't immune to superstition. Kotomi knew that Tomoya must have pulled out his best persuasion and legal skills to get them to agree to this, and she appreciated it.

"Well then, I put myself in your care." Kotomi bowed to the masseuse who was about to try her best to make the pain go away.

Tomoya was getting ready to watch, but the staff was pulling him to the table beside Kotomi's and he realized that they were intent on giving both of their guests a massage. He was about to refuse, but he could feel Kotomi's happiness that they were doing this together and that changed his mind. His intent was to watch Kotomi to see if she was getting any benefit from the massage, but he was asleep within minutes of laying down on the massage table and feeling the pressure from the masseuse on his own sore muscles.

When he woke up, Tomoya discovered that Kotomi was already sitting and had a relaxed smile. When he sat up, he felt a little less stiffness in his own body. "How do you feel?"

"Much better. Thank you, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi answered.

"Better… but still not _good_?" Tomoya persisted.

"There is still some pain, but it is not as bad as it was. That is _good_ is it not?" Kotomi countered.

Tomoya smiled his response, but he wasn't satisfied. Even if she wasn't complaining, he didn't like to see Kotomi in pain. Especially not while carrying his child… it made him feel responsible for her suffering. _There is still one more thing to try_ _while we're here_ _._

.

 **Saturday late mid-afternoon, November 6 – Sarutobikyo, or Jumping Monkey Gorge**

* * *

Even though there were several hours left in the day, the sun was behind the ridge now. And that meant the subject of their painting was now in shadow too. The girls were still diligently trying to paint, but Kouko knew that the change in light would cause them to start making mistakes, so she decided to call it quits for the day. Kouko clapped her hands and was about to call out to them when another voice interrupted the idyllic scene.

"Hey, hey! What do we have here? Four pretty girls all alone and nowhere to go." a sinister voice called out as five young men in athletic jackets descended the steps onto the deck where the girls were set up. From their size and the looks of their jackets, they could be third years in high school or perhaps college students.

"I am a teacher. These are high school girls, and they are in my care. You boys are interrupting a class, so you need to just move along." Kouko kept her eyes on the one who had called out and noticed the movement of Kenta and Ryota only with her peripheral vision. The two former thugs were quietly coming out from under the branches of the shade tree and moving up behind the two rearmost of the uninvited intruders.

"Oooh a teacher! And such a pretty one at that… well, teachers get lonely too!" sinister leered at Kouko while the two friends immediately behind him were checking out the high school girls. Something was wrong though. These girls didn't look scared or even concerned. In fact, if anything – they looked amused. The two friends in the back weren't making that observation though. They were struggling to make any noise at all and trying desperately to breathe. Their feet were off the ground and their arms and legs thrashed about, as Kenta and Ryota held them firmly in sleeper holds. They had managed to make some noise in all their struggles, but it was masked by the constant splashing and burbling sounds from the rapidly moving water of the nearby river. When the two bodies finally stopped moving, Kenta and Ryota gently laid them down on the deck and moved up on the next two.

"I don't get lonely. I have good friends and I am happily married. You should think more about your own happiness." Kouko warned the leering youth.

"Oh no sensei, you don't need to worry about me. As you can see, I've got friends too. And we're about to enjoy some very sweet happiness. Right guys?" the sinister leer waited for a response that didn't come and what made it worse was that none of these girls looked the least bit intimidated. Without taking his eyes off his prey, he called out to his friends, "Guys?"

The response was a strong arm around his neck. His hands flew up to pull the arm away but it was no use. The arm was strong enough to ignore his futile attempts. His panic increased when he felt the vice-like power of the arm slowly closing on his throat and shutting off the air and blood to his head.

"We should get out of here before they wake up." Kouko said as Ryota lowered the last of them onto the hard wooden deck.

"Why?" Kenta asked. He didn't feel any fear of these punks even if he had to take them all on alone.

"None of them saw either of you and I think it's best if we keep it that way. We don't want to cause any trouble for Tomoyo-chan or Kotomi-chan, right?" Kouko explained as she quickly packed her things away.

"Uh… right, sensei!" Suddenly seeing Kouko's logic, they rushed over to pack up their collapsing chairs, table, and game. Neither Ryota nor Kenta wanted to make any trouble for the Boss. She needed this vacation more than anyone else and _nobody_ wanted to screw that up for her.

.

 _ACHOOO!_

Tomoyo sneezed. Higher up in the gorge, she and Isamu were enjoying the view of the last rays of sunlight on the far ridge-line. Some of that jagged ridge was bare gray rock but other parts were covered in brightly colored foliage. Up here in the cool air, it was beautiful and peaceful.

 _Achooo!_

This high in the gorge, the quiet was undisturbed by the babbling river far below them.

 _achooo_

Which meant that an embarrassed Tomoyo had to hear no less than three echoes of her sneeze com back to her.

 _chooo_

"Are you okay?" Isamu tried hard to keep his face sincere. But hearing the multiple echoes of Tomoyo's cute sneeze had been hilarious and seeing her blush from the embarrassment of it had been adorable.

"You're horrible." Tomoyo pouted. As much as he had tried to hide it from her, she could tell that he really wanted to laugh at her. "Maybe you're _too much_ like Tomoya."

"Geeez, when am I gonna stop getting compared to that guy?" Isamu groaned.

"He is the only guy I ever loved before you." Tomoyo explained, "So I guess I'll be comparing you to him as long as I love you."

"Oh, so that's how it works eh? Well… I guess I don't mind so much then. But…" Isamu stopped and wondered if he should bring it up.

"What?" Tomoyo prodded.

"Could ya at least try not to call me 'Tomoya' when we're makin out?" Isamu asked.

"WHAT?" Tomoyo cried out, appalled to hear such a thing. She was about to shout a denial at him when the echoes came back to haunt her.

 _What!_

 _what_

 _hat_

Her face crimson from the embarrassment of what he had told her and from the echo of her reaction, she turned to him and forced herself to respond quietly, "I… don't… do… that."

"You did." Isamu told her honestly, "Only a few times though."

"Oh no." Tomoyo turned away. She couldn't let him see her face like this. "I'm truly sorry. I'm… I'm so ashamed."

"It's okay. I'm not upset with you or anything. It was just something that bothered me." Isamu put his hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her back toward him, but she shook off his hand and kept looking away. "Come on, Tomoyo. Look at me."

"No. Right now… I just can't." Tomoyo was mortified that she had done such a thing. One of the fights that her parents had, started after he called his wife by some other woman's name. She had always thought that such a slip was unforgivable, and yet…

"Well, I can't let you take all the embarrassment." Isamu had an idea that made him smile, "I guess I'll start off with: 'I love Sakagami Tomoyo.'"

"Huh?" Tomoyo wondered what he meant by that but all he was doing now was taking a deep breath.

"I LOVE SAKAGAMI TOMOYO!" Isamu bellowed out into the thin mountain air and waited for the echoes to come back.

 _I Love Sakagami Tomoyo!_

 _I love Sakagami Tomoyo!_

 _love sak...i toy...o_

 _love toy...o_

"Hey, I got four echoes with mine!" Isamu said proudly.

"Baka!" was all Tomoyo said. His loud declaration only added to her embarrassment so that now her ears were even red.

"Even if she won't look at me." Isamu said and then took a deep breath.

"No!" Tomoyo protested, but she was too late.

"EVEN IF SHE WON'T LOOK AT ME!" he shouted again.

 _Even If She Won't Look At Me!_

 _Even if she won't look at me!_

 _she won't look at me_

 _look at me_

"I can't believe you." Tomoyo gasped, but still didn't turn around to face Isamu.

"Even if she calls me 'Tomoya' when we're in bed together." Isamu said and took a deep breath.

Tomoyo spun around at dizzying speed and clamped a hand down over Isamu's mouth. She was about to threaten him, but his arms were around her and he was pulling her into a loving hug. Her fight was gone and she let him pull her in. Having his strong arms around her was something she wanted to feel anyway.

"I don't get why that bothered you so much." Isamu said quietly while he held her close, "You usually don't let words get to you."

"It's just that…" Tomoyo cringed inside, but she needed to tell him. "To call you someone else's name while we're… being passionate. It's… unforgivable."

"No, it's not." Isamu objected.

"Yes, it is." Tomoyo insisted.

"I can prove you're wrong." Isamu said confidently.

"Oh really? How?" Tomoyo demanded.

"I forgive you." Isamu said simply.

"…" Tomoyo stewed for a moment in the disappointingly easy way that this uneducated, lumbering, jerk had just defeated her assertion. That was when the realization hit her, "You really are a lot like Tomoya."

"I can live with that." Isamu pulled back from the hug to look Tomoyo in the face and tell her, "Now, let's kiss and make up."

Just as their lips met, they both heard another loud shout – followed by the inevitable echoes.

"EWWWWW! WE CAN SEE YOU KISSING!" a chorus of voices rang out into the gorge.

 _Ewwwww! We can see you kissing!_

 _Ewww we see you kissing_

 _see you kiss_

.

 **Saturday early evening, November 6 – Kanetsuri Station**

* * *

Kyou considered her options. Her group could get off the train at the Kanetsuri Station, or stay on until the end of the line where their resort was. According to the brochure, there was an observation deck near the station with an unobstructed view of the Mannen Yuki – A place high up in the Japanese Alps and on the shade side of the mountain, where the snow never melted. She knew how much young children liked snow, but seeing it that far away would be like seeing it in a picture.

A better argument against taking that side trip just then, was all around her. All of the children were tired already. Many of them were asleep and leaning on each other or one of the adults in the group. The gorilla-like Hiroki was intensely pleased that the two second-year girls were sleeping with their heads resting on his legs. Even some of the adults were nodding off. She couldn't blame them though. There had been a lot of walking and activity this day, and the rhythmic sounds of the little train's wheels on the tracks was a strong lullaby.

 _That's okay though. We still have tomorrow to explore – before we all have to head back. Tonight, I'll be looking forward to soaking in the hot spring and_ _relaxing away all this_ _…_ The guilt hit her like a brick. Kotomi, who had arranged this trip and paid for almost everything, was the only person who couldn't enjoy the hot springs. And… she was arguably the one who could have benefited the most from it. Tomoya had told her not to worry about that and that he had a couple of plans to help Kotomi out, but how much could he do? She trusted him enough now to believe that he wouldn't do anything stupid. But she also wouldn't put it past him to lie to her so she could run off and have a good time. She was starting to get mad at him when she remembered what he had done for her that morning.

On the event horizon of collapsing into that dark place of self loathing, he had pulled her back. And ohhhh, how magnificently and splendidly he had pulled her back! Pinned to the floor underneath him, she could remember the heat of his body when she wrapped her arms and legs around him. The fire of his fingers as they caressed her naked flesh. The flames of his kiss. More than just his heat, there was his broiling passion and sense of urgency when he…

"Sensei, are you okay?" a child's voice interrupted her memories like a bucket of icy water, "You were moaning and making a funny face."

Kyou's eyes sprang open and blush covered her face, but her mouth didn't seem to want to work. Her embarrassed mind wanted to hide from everyone, but her shameless body still wanted back into that hot embrace.

"Sensei is okay." Melissa told the child, "She was just remembering the Planetarium we visited today. She really enjoyed that Planetarium. What was your favorite part of the museum?"

Kyou sat as a spectator and watched as Melissa skillfully distracted the inquisitive child. Realizing that she must have been dozing off, Kyou nodded her thanks to Melissa and tried to calm herself down. Over the years, she had learned a lot of self control and it was something she knew she could do. However… she also knew it wouldn't be easy.

.

 **Saturday night, November 6 – Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

Dinner had been good. Afterwards, tired children and tired adults were looking forward to a soak in the hot spring and then, a soft futon. Yuki was only a little surprised when Tomoya asked her for a small alteration to their sleeping arrangements. Tonight, Shuichi and Shuji would sleep in the same room with Michiko, Ushio, and Yuki – and Kyou would be in the same room with Tomoya and Kotomi.

"Have fun, Tomoya-kun!" Yuki smiled broadly and playfully gave him a little kiss on the cheek.

"Eh?" Tomoya was about to explain that this was all for Kotomi, but Yuki already had several children in tow and was headed out to the onsen's hot springs.

"Are you two not going to enjoy the hot springs this evening? Kotomi asked Tomoya and Kyou while they watched everyone else head off to the riverside baths.

"Well… Tomoya-kun says he has a plan." Kyou said softly. Her voice was subdued because she wasn't sure how to feel about this. She wanted to pout at Tomoya since she had been looking forward to soaking in the hot spring all day. But she felt guilty because she knew Kotomi couldn't… in her condition.

"According to the staff, there is a path that runs along the river upstream a bit." Tomoya explained his plan to them, "There is a place where there is a series of two low flood control dams. A hot spring exists naturally between the two dams and at night, the water pouring over the top dam is cold."

"I see! That might work!" Kotomi was excited.

"What?" Kyou looked from Tomoya to Kotomi, "What might work?"

"In a fluid turbulence like that, the temperatures will not mix completely." Kotomi explained, "That means, there will be parts of the pool that are very hot, other parts that are very cold, and everything in between."

"Ah! So, you can soak in the hot spring with us?" Kyou cheered.

"Yes!" Kotomi beamed. Then her good mood turned to a frown when she realized the weakness with this plan, "Tomoya-kun. As I become comfortable with the temperature of the water, I am afraid I will lose my ability to subjectively determine the water temperature. If that were to happen…"

"Not to worry." Tomoya said confidently as he pulled something out of the deep pocket of his robe. It looked like a rod that had a weight on one end and a float on the other. "The onsen is letting me borrow one of their pool thermometers."

"Well then, Tomoya-kun…" Kyou felt cheery now that all the obstacles seemed to have been resolved, "what are we waiting for? Let's go have fun!"

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Janpusaru Onsen Hotel: The path is real, but there are two onsens, with different names. Following the practice of Manga and Anime, I keep the location names but change the business names… as much as possible.

Kanetsuri Station: Third stop up the narrow gauge railroad.

Mannen Yuki: Ten Thousand Year Old Snow. Viewable from the Kanetsuri Station.

Okazaki Yuki: Tomoya's cousin from Hokkaido. Graduated a year behind and from the same college as Tomoyo. Currently helping Kyou with her school project and living at the Ichinose House.

Onii-san: big brother

Sarutobikyo: Jumping Monkey Gorge. As described, this place really exists.


	29. Chapter 29 - The Koyo trip, part 3

**Sunday late afternoon, November 7 – Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

It had been another day of fun and relaxation at the scenic mountain onsen. Kyou had taken her class on another outing to explore the safer trails around the Kanetsuri Station, and Kouko had led her class to a spot where her students could try their hand at painting a waterfall. But in Tomoya's opinion, the best news was that Kotomi's pain seemed to be going away.

After having two more of the relaxing massages and another chance to relax in the mineral rich spring water, she felt well enough to go on a walk with Tomoya in the late afternoon. The onsen staff had told Tomoya that the uphill path from their onsen was very pretty, but it also became difficult for anyone that was mobility impaired… or prone to joint and muscle pain. On the other hand, the route back down to the station was easier and was also very lovely in the daytime. It didn't take long for Tomoya to decide. Going back down the winding but well maintained path, would be easier for Kotomi and they could rest at one of the little shops clustered around the train station before heading back. He only hoped that Kotomi wasn't bored. She wasn't surrounded by her technology here and, knowing where her comfort zone was, he wondered if this trip had been any kind of vacation for her at all.

Kotomi came out for her walk in a Tsukesage Kimono. The bright green fabric with the patterns of orange, red, and yellow explosions, made the garment look like an out-of-focus picture of the brilliant autumnal foliage that covered the steep valley all around them. Tomoya worried about the tightness of the obi around her midsection and how that might be painful in her condition. But, Kotomi didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable. For a moment he thought about suggesting that she wear something more comfortable, but he remembered that she always did like to wear the more traditional Japanese clothing.

Even though it was late in the afternoon – which is usually the warmest part of the day, the temperature was quite chilly. In fact, it felt cooler now than it did earlier in the morning. Tomoya had dressed for the cooler weather and Kotomi would be okay in her winter-weight Kimono. But there was concern for all the children that were out on another field trip with Kyou, as well as some of the other adults. Tomoya and Kotomi had seen all of them off earlier in the day and knew that they hadn't left with clothing suitable for this colder weather. So, borrowing one of the onsen's luggage carriers, Tomoya pulled a wagon full of jackets and blankets along on his right, while he held Kotomi's hand on his left. Even though he wanted to get the jackets to the station so that the children and all of his friends didn't get cold, he was still concerned that Kotomi's pain might come back. But she seemed to be doing much better today, regarding the pain.

"Do you think it was the massage or the water?" Tomoya asked aloud while wondering what might have been the beneficial agent.

"It might not be either." Kotomi replied, "It could be that the pain was a just a phase of this pregnancy and it has run it's course. In that case, it would just be a coincidence that the pain went away after yesterday's activities. So, to attribute cause and effect without further testing would be premature."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess so." Tomoya agreed, but he hoped that there was a connection. It wasn't so much that he wanted credit for alleviating her pain… but it would be nice to know about something that could help if the pain flared up again.

"Regardless of whether they were instrumental in treating my pains, I enjoyed them very much. Thank you for arranging it for me, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi looked over at Tomoya and saw that he was pleased to hear that. Moving closer as they walked, she took his arm and leaned into him as she added, "In fact… I plan to get one more massage this evening. And afterwards, if I'm feeling up to it, I would like to restart the normal marital function that has been missing of late."

"Huh?" Tomoya's mind was stumbling over Kotomi's words.

"I want to make out with you." Kotomi said plainly, "I have missed the feeling of having your hands touch me on my…"

"Hey!" Tomoya interrupted her before she could say something embarrassing on the path back to the train station. It wasn't terribly busy and there weren't a lot of people around, but Tomoya knew how voices could carry when you weren't surrounded by all the background noise of the city. And there certainly wasn't a lot of background noise out here.

"Hmm?" Kotomi looked up at Tomoya's face. The sudden interruption had surprised her and she was a little worried that he no longer wanted to make out with her. "Have I become unattractive, Tomoya-kun? Do you no longer wish to put your hands on my body?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Tomoya was getting lost with all the signals his brain was trying to react to. He suddenly realized that his response was terrible if matched against her second question when he saw her hurt expression. Desperately he explained, "Wait... I mean… I do still find you attractive, and of course I want to put my hands on your body!"

The few people on the path that could be seen, stopped and looked at the man that had just made a very bold and rather perverted claim.

"Hentai." a few voices said in disgust – and not too quietly.

"No!" Tomoya was about to protest through his embarrassment when a defiant thought occurred to him, _Just a damn minute! I'm not a teenager any more. Who are they to call me hentai?_ Squaring his shoulders he said aloud, although not directed to anyone in particular, "We happen to be married. And if I want to put my hands on her... or do anything else with my wife, I can do it without anyone else's approval… or labels."

To prove his point, he pulled Kotomi to him and kissed her soft, but willing lips.

Kotomi had never understood the social landscape when it came to the appropriateness of intimacy. Many of the restrictive social norms that Tomoya and Kyou had tried to teach her were remembered for a while, but eventually lost since they didn't make any sense. And to Kotomi's way of thinking: if something doesn't make sense, it is irrational and unworthy of concern or retention. So, when Tomoya kissed her on the public walkway, it was no different to her than a kiss in a dark secluded room. She kissed back with the pent up passion that had been freed with the recent absence of pain.

A few people took pictures of the amorous couple, but most just scoffed and went on their way. Tomoya didn't care though. It had been a while since Kotomi was feeling amorous, and it was refreshing to be reminded of how good a kisser she was.

.

 **Sunday early evening, November 7 –** **Keyakidaira** **Station**

* * *

Kyou was worried. It had gotten a lot colder than she had planned for, and most of the children didn't have their jackets with them. Many of the adults didn't either, but it was the little ones she was most worried about. The train was pulling into the station and she had come to a decision. Hoping that they were still at the onsen, she would call Kotomi and Tomoya and ask them to bring the children's jackets to the station. Of course, there were all kinds of other questions she worried about. _What if they're not at the onsen? How long will it take them to get to the train station? How long will the station remain open? How much colder will it be before we get the jackets and can be heading back? Why didn't I think of this before we headed out this morning?_

"Kyou-mama." Shuichi called out to his mother as they entered the station building.

"Not right now, sweetie. I have to call your father." Kyou tried not to sound brusque as she concentrated on her cell phone. But her concentration was broken by the laughter of the many children around her. She looked around to see what they were laughing at, but they were all looking at her. Finally paying attention to Shuichi, and with the sound of the cell phone ringing in her ear, she muttered a, "Huh?"

"Papa." Shuichi said simply and pointed toward the station's broad interior walkway.

"Eh?" Kyou followed the boy's finger to find Tomoya with a cell phone to his head, and Kotomi with a wagon laden with blankets and jackets. At the same moment, her phone stopped ringing and she heard Tomoya's voice.

"Hello Kyou-chan." Tomoya said with a smirk.

"WHAT?" Kyou cried out in disbelief.

"Jackets." Tomoya said simply as he held up a small child's jacket.

"But… how?" Kyou demanded.

"Come on Kyou, weather reports aren't that difficult to figure out." Tomoya poked at her.

Kyou was about to make a sarcastic retort, but noticed the sound of raucous laughter all around her. Apparently, the children had found her antics to be the funniest thing ever, and it was hard to get worked up into a snit, with so many happy children around her. Instead, she hung up the cell phone and turned to the children.

"All right. All of you that didn't bring your jacket, go see if Ojiisan has something for you." Kyou watched the excited children rush over to the wagon even as Tomoya's face changed from smirk to shock.

"O… Ojiisan? OJIISAN! I'm younger than you, dammit!" Tomoya sputtered indignantly at Kyou. But his defiance only made the children laugh more.

.

 **Sunday evening, November 7 – Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

The children had all gone back to their rooms for the evening and with them, most of the adults. A few of Tomoyo's boys were relaxing in the men's bath, but that left Tomoyo and Isamu alone in the mixed bath. With no one else around, they had the freedom to hold onto each other the way lovers do. Up to their shoulders in the aromatic hot spring water, their embrace was very romantic, if not entirely happy.

Neither of them had yet said a word, but both knew the nature of the issue that was tearing at their hearts. According to the selection rules, anyone that was chosen for the exploration teams could only be individuals without dependents. No children, no aged relatives, absolutely no-one that relied on them for support. And truly, Sakagami Tomoyo did not rely on anyone for financial help or life-assistance. But, her emotional health was an entirely different matter.

It was only eight days until the next time she had to stand by, and watch four people disappear from her world – unsure if she would ever see any of them again. It was bad enough, thinking that anyone at all would be putting themselves at such risk, but those four people would consist of three that she had come to know well, and one she had come to love. The ache in her heart and the fear that battered her would be simple to resolve if not for one little problem…

Participating in these explorations meant everything to Isamu.

He had never done anything in his life that he could truly be proud of. Looking back, Isamu wondered how he had made it this far, and was still alive. He and his friends had always been a bit on the wild side. The rules and laws of man were nothing but challenges and he had broken most of them by the time most of his non-delinquent peers were studying to take their high school entrance exams. Going to school had been something he hadn't wasted his time on. Like his friends, they knew their futures were a joke, so studying for tests and going to high school was a joke too. Besides, there was too much fun to be had rather than sitting in stuffy classrooms all day. As his teen life spiraled out of control, it was inevitable that he would join up with the gang his friends were in – then they could all have fun together.

Except, fun wasn't as common as he had thought it would be. There was a lot of boredom, and some of the things that the gang did for fun really didn't interest him. Like a bored dog he would sit around – just waiting for something to happen. His friends were the same way. So, when something did happen, they would all get in on it. Not because they were all that interested, but it was at least an escape from the terrible, never-ending boredom.

One day, he and his friends had seen an easy mark. Some stuck-up school girl was alone and in the wrong place. The plan was easy… they would have a little fun with her, relieve her of her money, and use it to have fun at the arcade for a few hours. But the girl wasn't an easy mark after all and their plan turned into anger, then fear, then terror. The girl had been merciless as she waded through them like they were nothing but origami figures. She bent and crushed them like they were made of paper and there was nothing they could do to stop her. Several of his friends ended up in the hospital. Most of them had broken bones. At first it had infuriated Isamu how easily this platinum blond girl was singlehandedly destroying his gang. But when she had kicked him in the chest and sent him flying, he had seen something in her face. The vision was just there for a moment and then his body crashed into a brick wall and all light faded from the world for a while. But it was not something he forgot. The look in her face… in her eyes… as she ripped into them. She wasn't angry, but she wasn't having fun either. Like him, she was bored… and there was a terrible sadness there.

As he lay in bed waiting for his body to mend, he wondered about that girl. While the sun danced on the clothes drying on the line outside his window, he recalled how strikingly beautiful she was. And yet at the same time, she was terrifyingly dangerous and inconsolably sad. Isamu wondered if he would still be bored if he ever met a girl like that again… or if she would kill him. Either way, it would be an end to the boredom that his life had become.

But there had been other options. Unexpectedly, he had become a handyman and had discovered that he actually enjoyed helping people. After becoming good at his work, he found out how much he liked being proud of a job well done. A greater shock occurred when he realized that others were looking to him like a leader – but that was something he never really felt comfortable with. Then, completely unlooked for, an opportunity beyond his wildest dreams had come to him from the same people that had helped to turn him into a handyman. From people he trusted came a chance to do something dangerous, but important. He had found something that wasn't boring, and yet it was something he could be proud of. Unlike the handyman work, it was a chance to do what no-one else had ever done before… and it turned out he was pretty good at it. The danger and the risk might have been daunting to someone else, but it was like the very vigor of life to him. Isamu looked forward to it the way a child anticipates a trip to the amusement park, or the way a high school student craves a trip to the beach with his friends. His next chance was only eight days away now, and he could already feel his pulse racing when he thought of getting ready for _the next time_. But there was a problem. He wasn't stupid enough to be oblivious about Tomoyo's feelings, nor stoic enough to have ignored his own feelings.

Tomoyo and Isamu had fallen in love. Normally, that would have been a good thing, but their strongest desires weren't exactly aligned. In fact, they clashed like the polar opposites they were. Isamu eagerly awaited the excitement of the next mission, while Tomoyo would have him give all of that up, and just stay home where it was safe.

"Tomoyo," Isamu summoned the courage to speak first and asked, "Would you still love me if all I did was home repairs and roofing jobs?" Even as he asked the question, he knew how she would answer... and it would resolve nothing. Perhaps the question really should have been asked of himself.

"Of course I would!" Tomoyo's heart beat a little faster for a moment while she hoped that he was about to decide to give up on the dangerous adventuring that frightened her so much. But, if he did that for her, then he would… "But… you would hate it wouldn't you?"

He could have played dumb and she might have dropped it, but Tomoyo was a smart girl and would see through his unclever non-response in a heartbeat. Instead he admitted, "Yeah, I guess I would."

"You would still give it up if I asked you to? You would do that for me?" Tomoyo asked. She didn't sound excited or hopeful to hear the answer though. She knew what he would say, but a sacrifice like that wouldn't help either of them.

"Yeah." Isamu thought about how much he would hate being left behind by the other guys if he gave up the missions... how much he would miss the excitement of going to another world. The thrilling tension of keeping his cool while he was there, so they could all come home safely. But still… if it meant that much to her, "For you. I'd give it all up."

"I really appreciate that." Tomoyo hugged him tight. Knowing the sacrifice he was willing to make for her happiness, filled Tomoyo with a comforting warmth. Sure, the hot spring she was sitting in was heating her body up, but this was a different kind of warmth. It was something she felt at more than just a physical level. But, as happy as the gracious offer made her feel, it was an offer she could not accept. She was not so vain and selfish that she could make that kind of demand of him. Nor could she accept that kind of gift. "But… I am not ready to ask that of you."

"Huh?" this time, Isamu's confusion was honest. Having made the offer, he had been sure that his adventuring days were over.

"You need this. I can see how much it means to you, and I won't step in your way." _Even if it kills me every time, to watch you go!_ Tomoyo held onto him tight so he couldn't turn and see her tears.

"Tomoyo…" he wanted to say something kind and meaningful, but his mind was irritatingly blank at this crucial moment.

"You better promise me…" Tomoyo said through her tears, "that you'll always come home to me!"

"I'll always come home to you. I promise." Isamu was caught in the bittersweetness of the moment. Part of him wanted to celebrate that he could still go on the expeditions, but he knew what this was doing to the one he loved and there was no joy there.

"Don't take unnecessary chances… don't do anything stupid! Promise me." Tomoyo knew Isamu wasn't the kind of person to take those unnecessary risks or intentionally do something stupid… but she wanted to hear him say it.

"No stupid stuff. I promise." Isamu pulled her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. "Going on these expeditions is one of the two most important things I'm doing with my life. I promise you that I will take every moment seriously. I won't get lazy. I won't let you down."

"Th… thank you, Isamu." Tomoyo raised her head and kissed Isamu. Even though he would still be going on the missions that troubled her so much, she felt more assured now. Hearing him express his feelings had calmed her frayed nerves. And yet, there was something he had said that bothered her just a little. "Um… what is the other thing?"

"Eh?" Isamu cocked an eyebrow.

"You said that the expeditions were one of two important things in your life." Tomoyo explained her question, "What is the other thing?"

"Heh." Isamu smiled and looked deep into Tomoyo's eyes as he told her, "Coming back to you, of course."

.

 **Monday early morning, November 8 –** **near the** **Janpusaru Onsen Hotel**

* * *

Kyou found herself wandering through dark places. She was desperate to find something... but she couldn't remember what it was. All around her, she could sense things moving furtively in the shadows, but try as she might, she could never get a good look at more than the reflection of eyes momentarily looking back at her.

"Where can it be!" Kyou demanded – still without truly knowing what she was looking for.

Her outburst seemed to cause a disturbance in the foreboding environment. Something… or some things that were bigger, faster, and far more dangerous than the sneaking things had been stirred up. And they were hunting the prey that had disturbed them.

Kyou couldn't see them either, but she knew they were coming. As dark as it was, she could still hear them crashing through the bushes and trees as they got closer. Kyou instinctively reached for… but there was no dictionary, nor anything else she could use near by. In fact, she was shocked to find out that she was…

"Naked? Naked! What the hell am I doing out here naked?" But she didn't have time to think about that quandary. The sounds of several large dangerous things crashing through the underbrush were getting much closer now. "I… I have to get away. But… I still have to find that thing! If only… there was some kind of clue…"

Just at that moment, Kyou caught a glimpse of something bright… or at least brighter than the rest of the dim shadowy world around her. As she got nearer, she saw that there were two strips of paper seemingly stuck to an enormous, but dead tree. Without slowing down in her race to get away from her pursuers, she ripped the papers from the tree and took them with her. Dodging creeping tree roots and low branches that seemed to reach out toward her as she ran past, she couldn't look at the two strips of paper for a few moments. But she finally got her chance when she broke out of the gnarled forest and into a wide clearing under a moonlit sky. Slowing her pace a little, she read the terrible words:

 _Greatest Curse. Romance. A good friend's tragedy will requite your greatest desire._

 _Future Good Fortune. Hopes and Dreams. A hardship is postponed, but it's day of reckoning will come. Stand firm and strong through the hardship and the treasures you seek will finally be yours._

Words that she had long tried to forget came rushing back to her. Stunned by those accursed words, she stopped moving and stared at the strips of paper that had suddenly taken away all hope of finding what she was looking for, and replaced it with an awful dread. _No! This was an old fortune, it... it is expired. It doesn't apply to me any more!_

In the midst of her defiant rant, something knocked her down in the middle of the field, but it wasn't the pursuers. The smaller creatures were holding onto her as if to protect her. Kyou no longer felt like she was in danger, but a terrible feeling of wrongness was far scarier than running from an invisible threat had been. _It's not fair! I tied that curse to a tree! I am done with it... it no longer applies to me! This isn't right!_

"NOOOOOOOO!" she screamed into the night and tried to free herself from the small creatures. But there seemed to be no escape. The creatures would not let her go and the sense of wrongness only got worse.

 _A good friend's tragedy will requite your greatest desire._

 _A hardship is postponed, but it's day of reckoning will come._

 _... the treasures you seek will finally be yours._

"I'm happy now! I don't need any treasures if it means tragedy for a friend. I DON'T WANT THIS!" Kyou screamed against the unfairness of an uncaring fate. Struggling as her voice echoed through the moonlit glade, she still could not dislodge the small animals that clung to her. She tried to make the creatures understand that she had to move. She had to stop something terrible from happening but they didn't understand. They only held on tighter the more she struggled. The determined creatures were clinging to her as if they were trying to save themselves… or trying to save her.

.

"No!" Kyou's eyes were wide open and she was panting. She was also in one of the rooms at the onsen and she slowly realized that she had just awoken from a nightmare. Although awake now, she still felt as if she was weighted down. And she was hot.

"Kyou-mama?" a sleepy voice called out to her in the darkness.

"Huh?" At first Kyou hadn't recognized the voice, but the fog of sleep was quickly clearing from her mind and she remembered that she was sleeping in the room with Shuichi, Shuji, Michiko, and… Ushio. And she wasn't just sharing the same room with them any more. For whatever reason, they had all migrated to cuddle up to her as they slept and she was buried under their warm bodies. It was Ushio's gentle voice that was calling out to her. Kyou turned to see the little girl's face above where it had been resting on her thigh. _When did she start calling me Kyou-mama?_

"Are you okay? Were you having a bad dream?" Ushio asked.

"I'm better now, thank you Ushio. You can go back to sleep now." Kyou said in her caring mom-voice.

"Okay." Ushio took Kyou at her word and plopped her head back down on the warmth of Kyou's blanket covered thigh. In that close comfort, she was quickly sleeping again.

But sleep would be elusive for Kyou. The nightmare had rattled her and she couldn't shake it.

 _Dammit! I almost never remember my dreams. As soon as I wake up, I forget everything – even if it was something I wanted to remember. So why… WHY do I have to remember this? Those stupid fortunes from years ago! Why now? Why…_

.

 **Wednesday morning, November 10 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

Melissa, Ryota, Tomoya, and Kotomi were in the park with several members of the team that built the little gadgets that the explorers used. Most of the time, their specialty gear stayed hidden in the bottom of the tool boxes, but this time they had put something together for a different purpose. Ryota held what appeared to be a white plastic ball in his hand and was looking at it with a curious expression when Tomoyo and the rest of the boys arrived. Kotomi noticed them approaching, and became very excited.

"Tomoyo-chan! I have such wonderful news, I'm sure you will like it." Kotomi gestured to the ball in Ryota's hands.

"Wonderful news…" Tomoyo repeated as she looked at the ball. Now that she was closer, she could see that it was patterned much like a futball but with some kind of sparkly thing at the center of each pentagon.

"It looks like a ball." Hiroki commented dryly.

"It is far more than just a truncated icosahedron." Kotomi explained, "This is a survey device that will dramatically increase the exploration team's survivability odds."

"Oh?" Tomoyo took a little more notice of the bejeweled ball now and the rest of the team also seemed a little more keen to hear about the ball as well.

"It has sensors to detect atmospheric pressure, temperature, particulate contamination, ultraviolet light level, and it has a receiver to pick up JJY time broadcasts." Kotomi said excitedly.

"JJY what?" Takeshi asked.

"It's a broadcast signal that constantly tells the time and date." Tomoya answered. Then he confided to Takeshi, "I had to ask too."

"How is that going to… increase our survivability?" Isamu asked. The ball did sound useful, but he didn't see how it would save lives or anything.

"On the next mission, we will send the ball first. It will take all its readings, then it will transmit those readings back to us. That way, we will know exactly what the weather is like before you get there, and we will know what time of year it is too." Kotomi told them.

"I see. So we can take just what we need." Kenta saw the use of it now. The little ball would tell them if they had to prep for summer or winter on the other world.

"Or… if we should abort the mission." Tomoyo added.

"What?" several voices clamored.

"If it tells us that there is an extremely high or low temperature…" Tomoyo knew that she was predisposed to cancel a mission more than anyone else here, but still… they should all be able to see the logic of not going to a world that was dramatically different than their own.

"I understand your concern, Tomoyo-chan. But I don't believe it is possible to go to worlds like that." Kotomi said.

"Why not?" Tomoyo wasn't a super-genius like Kotomi, but she hadn't slept through her math or science classes either. She asked Kotomi, "If there are an infinite number of parallel worlds, then there are an endless number of variations. There may even be worlds without any atmosphere at all out there."

"I'm sure there are, but we do not have any access to them." Kotomi replied. "I do not yet know how to create my own gateways, so we are still using the gateways created by the Ushio entities. That means that we will only be able to go to worlds where both a Tomoya-kun and a Nagisa-chan exist."

"Oh… are you saying that as a fact now? I thought it was only a theory before?" Tomoyo felt a lot better having heard this, but she wanted to know how sure Kotomi was – of this assumption.

"I suppose it is still a theory, and admittedly one that I will probably never be able to prove." Kotomi said thoughtfully, "But, all evidence points to this being a valid supposition."

"I see." Tomoyo would rather it have been a proven fact, but she had to admit that she was willing to trust anything that Kotomi was willing to put so much faith in.

"Ryota-san, you don't look as thrilled as I thought you would be." Melissa called out the techiest member of the exploration team who was still dubiously looking at the ball.

"Is it… is it too late to make any other modifications?" Ryota asked.

"What do you have in mind?" the leader of the engineering group asked. If it had been anyone else to ask that question he might have felt insulted, but not with Ryota. He and the members of his team had discovered that this former tough was quite the technician and often had excellent suggestions.

"Cameras." Ryota said, "It would be nice to know if there is a group of people around the ball when we are about to transit over."

"Cameras…" the stunned engineering leader repeated. Not only was it possible, it could be easily done. "I honestly don't know how we overlooked that. Ryota-san, I also don't know how far you got with your schooling, but it is never too late to go to college, you know. There are prep and cram schools that can help you get ready. And, you now have many friends who would volunteer to tutor you. When you are done with this project for Ichinose-hakase, please consider going back to school. I believe you would be an impressive engineer."

"That's a great idea!" Tomoyo added.

"Huh?" Ryota stared at the lead engineer and tried to figure out if he was being made fun of. When he didn't see the characteristic smirks that usually went with a slam like that, he turned to The Boss, and then to Kotomi and Tomoya to see if one of them could help him figure out what was going on.

"I think that is a splendid idea, Ryota-kun. But why wait until the project is over? You can start attending a cram school immediately." Kotomi agreed and suggested. Then, turning to her husband, she asked, "Tomoya-kun, could you look into local education offerings and see if there is something out there that would be a good match for Ryota-kun's needs?"

"Absolutely! In fact, I think I could get him enrolled in a program before the end of next week." Tomoya's expression was the first to suggest a smirk, but it wasn't because he was taunting the former tough. He could see the young man squirming at the thought of going back to school, but unwilling to squash everyone's expectations of him.

"Thank you very much." Ryota said sheepishly. He was glad that they thought so much of him, but also bemoaned the fact that his carefree days were now coming to an end.

.

 **Sunday afternoon, November 14 – Okazaki House (Sunohara residence)**

* * *

Youhei walked in the front door and announced that he was home. He heard a return call welcoming him home from the kitchen, but he didn't smell anything cooking. After stepping into his house slippers and rounding the corner, he could see why. Yukine was sitting at the table waiting for him and looked like she wanted to talk seriously.

Youhei immediately wondered if he had done something wrong. He was supposed to have had this Sunday off, but there had been a special meeting called for the officers that would be participating in the next experiment and he had to be there for that. _But Yukine isn't the kind of wife that would be upset with me about that. I know that a lot of marriages with police officers end in divorce because their partner can't take the stress of the spouse's job. But not Yukine! Please, not Yukine…_ With restrained trepidation, he took a seat at the table across from his wife, looked into her lovely blue eyes, and tried to smile. A number of opening lines came to his mind, but he decided to use one that would be the least smart-alecky.

"Where is Yoichi?" Youhei asked.

"He is still over at the Okazaki's. They invited us to dinner this evening so we'll pick him up then." Yukine told her husband.

"Oh, dinner at the Okazaki's, eh? That will be nice." Youhei tried to sound normal, but he was greatly relieved when her answer revealed why she wasn't cooking any dinner. At the very least, it wasn't because she was too mad at him to make his dinner.

"You-kun, there are a few things we need to talk about. But, before we start, I want you to promise not to be upset with me." Yukine said as she reached across the table and took his hands.

"Me? Upset with you?" Youhei blinked. That possibility hadn't crossed his mind. Yukine was _absolutely_ one of the most caring and thoughtful people he had ever known. The idea of her doing something that would cause him grief was absurd. "I could never be upset with you."

"I had hoped you might say that. But when a girl has the kind of thoughts that I've been having, she starts to have doubts." Yukine's smile showed her obvious relief at Youhei's reply. And yet, she still looked unsure of herself.

"What kind of… thoughts?" Youhei swallowed hard. He had tried to keep her happy, but what if he hadn't done enough? What if she wanted her freedom now? What if… she wanted to leave? These were the questions screaming in his mind at the moment, but he was as afraid to ask them as he was afraid to hear her answers.

"Well… let me start with this house. Since it got fixed up, it is very nice. But it belongs to Okazaki-san, and we are still living here like freeloaders." Yukine said.

"Yeah, well…" Youhei let his words trail off. He had often told Tomoya or Kotomi that he wanted to start paying rent on the place, but Kotomi always refused.

"To tell the truth, I have been putting aside the amount of money that a house payment would be and I was hoping that we could buy this house from them when I got to my goal." Yukine's words sounded hopeful but the tone of her voice and the look on her face showed discouragement.

"What? Were you unable to save enough? Is it because I'm not making enough money?" Youhei asked.

"No. I'm not blaming you at all." Yukine replied in a singsong way, "Kotomi and her godfather did some research a long time ago… while you were still in high school with me. When Tomoya's father moved away and they had to decide if they were going to keep the house, Kotomi wanted to know if it was worth keeping, or if they should just let it go."

"I remember that." Youhei recalled, "You girls were upset with Tomoya because he didn't care one way or the other – about the house his father had been buying for him… at least at first."

"Right, he had lost any affection for the place when he was having troubles with his father. But do you remember what changed his mind?" Yukine asked.

"Uh, yeah. It was worth more than he thought, right?" Youhei tried to recall everything he remembered from his last high school summer vacation.

"That's right. It had tripled in value since his father had made the contract to buy it. That was due to it's location in this growing community. Well, in the six years since then – until the beginning of this year, it has doubled again." Yukine told her husband.

"Wow!" Youhei was amazed.

"And in the months since Kotomi moved back to town and the experiments started, it has doubled again." Yukine added the latest information but didn't seem too happy about it.

"That's great! Isn't it?" Youhei was puzzled at the difference between the message and the expression on his wife's face.

"It's good for Okazaki-san, but Youhei… at this rate, we'll never be able to buy this place. Even though I save more and more money, this house just keeps getting more and more expensive." Yukine pointed out.

"Oh… oh yeah." Youhei's excited mood wound down as he too saw the problem. He knew how this could spiral into an argument that they had been through many times before. Yukine would demand that she should start working – to give them a dual income. But Youhei knew the sad truth. Yukine had not had the money to go to college and, although she had finished high school, she simply wouldn't be able to earn much in the present economy. Instead of ever bringing that up, Youhei had steadfastly insisted that her job was to be a wife and a mother. That had worked until now, but Yukine would be able to get a part-time job starting the next spring, since Yoichi would soon be starting school. Instead of starting into that topic again, he tried a different tactic. "Maybe we could buy a smaller place."

"What do you mean?" Yukine asked.

"Well, now that Fuko is out of her coma, she hasn't been living here with us." Youhei explained, "So I thought that with a smaller family, maybe we could…"

"What if I don't want a smaller family?" Yukine closed her eyes as she said it.

"Huh?" Youhei blinked. He could tell from her face and the way that she was squeezing his hands now, that this was what had really been bothering her.

"I know I'm being selfish. I've been thinking about this for a while now and… I want to make our family… bigger." Yukine said. Her eyes were still closed and it was clear that she was scared of the reaction she might get.

"Yu-chan… are you… are you pregnant?" Youhei asked in surprise.

"No." Yukine shook her head as she said, "Not yet. But I want to be! Is it so wrong that I want to give you another child?"

"Yu-chan!" Youhei barked at his wife who was still cringing with her eyes closed.

"Ah?" Yukine opened her eyes to see her husband smiling back at her and seeming not the least bit upset.

"Nothing… NOTHING… would make me happier." Youhei was jumping for joy inside. His fear that Yukine was dissatisfied with him was obliterated. He adored their son and frequently wondered what it would be like to have one… or even two more kids. But most of all, and this was something that was exceedingly rare, he had been able to surprise Yukine!

"But… what will we do about the house?" Yukine asked. The concern over the house and the shock of seeing Youhei so unexpectedly happy at her announcement were the only things holding back her joy.

"Between the baby's health and your own, you will soon have enough to worry about." Youhei said as he let go of her hands, got up from the table and walked around it to embrace her. While patting her still slim belly and remembering how she had looked when she was carrying their son, he told her, "You leave worrying about the house to me!"

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Janpusaru Onsen Hotel: The path is real, but there are two onsens, with different names. Following the practice of Manga and Anime, I keep the location names but change the business names… as much as possible.

Kanetsuri Station: Third stop up the narrow gauge railroad. From there, the Mannen Yuki (ten thousand year old snow) can be viewed from an observation deck.

Ojiisan: grandfather, senior citizen, or very old man

Sarutobikyo: Jumping Monkey Gorge. As described, this place really exists.

Truncated Icosahedron: a ball made of hexagons and pentagons – a soccer ball.


	30. Chapter 30 - Kotomi's Chance

**Sunday early evening, November 14 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

Isamu felt uncomfortable in a suit, but there are things a man does for the love of a woman that are trifling when compared to the happiness it brings her. And, wearing a suit was one of them. He consoled himself that – at least Tomoyo wasn't the kind of girl that wanted him in a suit all the time. But for special occasions, like this… she had told him that a more formal attire would be appropriate.

 _So, here I am. Wearing this_ _god-awful_ _thing. The collar chafes my neck. The tie feels like a noose. There isn't enough room in the pants. And the sleeves… I just know I'm gonna get food all over them. But at least I won't be alone in this misery. I'm sure every other guy will be wearing a monkey-suit too._ Isamu looked to his side at the beauty next to him. Tomoyo was wearing a dark blue dress that sparkled when she moved. Her long platinum blond hair flowed like a mane down her back. Mesmerized by her beauty, he forgot all about his discomfort for the moment.

Just then, the door opened and Isamu looked up from his adoration of his girlfriend, to see Okazaki Tomoya in a subdued black and blue kimono. Tomoya could tell by their surprised faces that they were not prepared for this. He was about to apologize when he saw the covetous look in Isamu's eyes. He knew that look himself quite well. There were some men that felt comfortable in a suit, but Tomoya wasn't one of them. And from the looks of it, neither was Isamu.

"Thanks for coming, you two." Tomoya said as he gestured them inside, "I take it – Kotomi didn't tell you about the change in plans?"

"Um… no, I guess not." Tomoyo answered for them.

"My apologies. She is in that stage of pregnancy when she is generally cheerful, but can sometimes be forgetful." Tomoya told them.

"Is she still in pain?" Tomoyo asked.

"No, she hasn't had a recurrence since the trip to the mountains. We are very fortunate about that." Tomoya replied with the happy news.

"So… is everyone else going to be in Kimonos?" Isamu asked.

"I'm afraid so. But, come to think of it…" Tomoya had his hand on his chin and was considering some options. "...if you don't mind, I think Tomoyo can fit into one of my cousin Yuki's kimonos and Isamu might be able to wear one of my old ones."

At 179 centimeters, Yuki was only three centimeters taller than Tomoyo and they both had rather athletic bodies. And, considering how Tomoya's younger cousin had practically worshiped her senpai in their days at the University in Hokkaido, Yuki was exceedingly happy that Tomoyo would be wearing something of hers. In fact, Tomoya had barely got the request out of his mouth before Yuki had enthusiastically got Tomoyo in tow and hurried up to her bedroom. For the tall platinum blond, Yuki selected a vivid red Iromuji kimono with an ornate black and silver obi. As expected, the kimono ended up being a good fit, but they were both pleasantly surprised at how good it looked on Tomoyo. With her fair skin and fair hair, she had worried that such a vivid color would wash her out. But that wasn't the case at all. With her blue eyes and her long blond hair in a braid, Yuki thought her senpai could easily be a model in that look.

On the other hand, the older kimono of Tomoya's had to be tucked in quite a bit for Isamu. The deep maroon and charcoal hakama hadn't fit Tomoya in several years, but even when it had, he had still been taller than Isamu's mere 158 centimeter height. Being more burly than Tomoya had ever been, the traditional clothes fit Isamu just fine width-wise, but was a bit long in the length. Fortunately, a kimono is a very flexible form of clothing when it comes to fit. The extra fabric could be folded under the obi and the garment would look like it fit. When both of them came out of the rooms they had been changing in, all were surprised at how well the two kimono's looked together. Tomoyo in her vivid red, black, and silver was a perfect match with Isamu's deep maroon, charcoal, and black.

"Isamu… " Tomoyo had never really thought of how he would look in traditional Japanese clothing and was stunned at the image he was pulling off. "You look very nice."

"Thank you. Tomoyo looks beautiful." Isamu was barely able to get the words out.

"You both look amazing together!" Yuki clamored, but everyone else agreed nevertheless.

"You can keep that if you like." Tomoya whispered to Isamu.

"Okazaki-san?" Isamu couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"It's okay. It doesn't fit me any more anyway." Tomoya reassured Isamu.

"You can have…" Yuki was in the midst of offering her kimono to Tomoyo when she was interrupted.

"Don't you dare tell me that this doesn't fit you any more. We have close to the same body." Tomoyo warned her taller but younger friend. "So, if I want this kimono, I will buy it from you."

"But…" Yuki wanted to give her senpai the kimono as a gift but Tomoyo wasn't having it.

"Yuki, I have a job in the city government. I am making a lot more money than you are in the volunteer work you are doing with Kyou. Under those circumstances, I could not possibly accept such a nice gift from you. Please, just tell he how much this kimono cost and I will buy it from you."

"Oh… Uh… I don't know how much it cost." Yuki said, with a light blush from her embarrassment at having to admit, "Kotomi-chan bought it for me."

"She bought it for you as a reward for how much you were helping Kyou-chan." Tomoya reminded his cousin. "You earned that kimono, so if you want to sell it to a friend – I don't think anyone would be offended."

"Thank you, Onii-san." Yuki said to Tomoyo, but the moment was still awkward for her.

Sensing Yuki's discomfort, Tomoyo decided to end the conversation and awkwardness quickly.

"We can discuss that later," Tomoyo took Yuki's hands and led her toward the stairs, "for now, let's enjoy this dinner with friends."

.

Sugisaka was in the dojo / playroom with all of the children. Michiko was happily next to Yoichi as they colored together. Shuichi and Shuji were nearby playing Beigoma with several brightly colored spinning tops in play. Since the game was normally played with only a single top for each person, they were arguing about whether Shuji's fallen top meant that he had lost the game or if that top was just out of play. Sugisaka was stepping in to rule on the debate, so that left the two younger children alone for the moment.

"How does it feel to be an onee-chan?" Yoichi asked Michiko while they colored on the same picture of horses running through a field of flowers.

"Huh? Oh, you mean Ushio…" Michiko sighed.

"She is your sister, and she's younger than you. Right?" Yoichi asked.

"Yeah… but… I dunno… I guess it just doesn't _feel_ like she's my sister." Michiko said. After saying it out loud, she suddenly felt guilty as if she had said something bad.

Sugisaka was watching the boys' spinning tops crashing into each other but listening to the conversation behind her. After what the youngest Okazaki child had just said, she wondered if she might need to step in and lecture the little girl.

"Do you hate her?" Yoichi asked.

"No. I don't hate her. It's not about like or hate, really. She's like a friend to me. But, I just don't feel like she is a sister the way I feel about Shuichi and Shuji being my brothers." Michiko said. She felt a little less guilty with this explanation but still felt like she was doing something wrong.

Sugisaka still didn't like what she was hearing from the only little girl in the room, but she would have to think of an appropriate way to deal with the child's attitude in a way that the little girl would understand… and not try to resist.

"Maybe it's because your brothers were with you from the day you were born, but Ushio has only been here around a month." Yoichi suggested.

"Yeah, that's it! She hasn't been with me for my whole life, so I just can't see her as a sister." Michiko felt better, now that she had a reason… or an excuse for her lack of feelings towards Ushio.

 _No! Don't give her a reason to distance herself from her half-sister! Yoichi-kun, what were you thinking? I need to counsel them on this… but what should I say?_ Sugisaka was about to turn around and talk to both of the younger ones when Yoichi spoke up again.

"Hmm… I wonder if that means that Shuichi and Shuji don't really see you as a sister?" Yoichi asked without lifting his head from the page he was coloring.

"Huh?" Michiko's head snapped up at the absurd, yet terrifying suggestion.

"They were with each other since they were born, cause they're twins. But you weren't born for a few more years after them. So, if you can't think of Ushio as a sister cause she wasn't around since you were born, doesn't that mean that your brothers really don't think of you as a sister?" Yoichi explained.

"No." a frightened Michiko looked back and forth between her brothers near the overturned drum and Yoichi next to her. Her two big brothers had always been there for her – as long as she could remember. They would show up to rescue her if she was hurt, or crying, or too shy to meet new people. She had always assumed that they loved her as much as she loved them. But what if Yoichi was right? What if they only thought of her as a little girl that lived in the same house? The tears started to well up in her eyes as she though about it. "But…"

Sugisaka sat up sharply. Yoichi's last argument had hit the little girl like a hammer. Sugisaka was sure she would soon be hearing little Michiko crying.

"I don't think that's right though." Yoichi sounded like he was reconsidering the idea, "I think your brothers like you lots and lots."

"You… you do?" Michiko asked hopefully.

"Sure. The way they care about you… it makes me wish I had a brother or sister." Yoichi smiled as he looked up at Michiko's renewed happiness. But his own smile waned as he looked back down and said, "It does make me feel sorry for Ushio though."

"Huh… why?" Michiko asked.

"She has an older sister that doesn't think of her as a sister." Yoichi kept his head down over the paper as he added, "That must make her feel pretty bad."

Michiko could say nothing. She remembered how terrible she felt just a few moments ago when she wondered if her brothers really saw her as a sister. And she had already admitted that she was doing the same thing to little Ushio. Michiko kept her head down over the paper she was coloring, but her hand wasn't moving. She looked completely motionless as warm tears ran down her cheeks to drop onto the paper.

Sugisaka pulled Michiko up into her arms and patted her on the back of the head. A move like this usually meant that it was time to go lie down for sleep and Michiko would usually fight it if there was company over, or if she was in the middle of play. But not this time. Instead, she put her teary eyes into Sugisaka's shoulder and held on around the adult's neck.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. You boys can play nicely until I return, can't you?" Sugisaka asked.

"Yes." a chorus of voices replied.

As Sugisaka carried the little girl up the stairs to her bedroom, she mentally replayed the conversation that she had overheard. As an adult, she didn't usually fear a four or five year old child, but Yoichi… Unless the conversation had just happened that way by chance, that was one scary little kid.

.

Back in the dojo, Shuichi and Shuji were looking at the younger boy on the floor with the coloring book. He was still holding the marker in his hand, but he wasn't coloring any more. Normally protective of their little sister, they had been distracted while Yoichi was talking to her. But they could tell that she was upset when Sugisaka took her out of the room – and they knew that Yoichi had something to do with it.

"Yoichi." Shuji called out.

"Yes?" Yoichi answered without lifting his head.

"Was that about Ushio?" Shuji asked.

"Yes." Yoichi admitted – still keeping his head down.

Shuichi and Shuji looked at each other. Both of them had also noticed that Michiko was still a little cold to Ushio, and they didn't like it. After all, Ushio was their little sister now too. Although the twins were generally not known for being nice to anyone that was mean to their sister, they were surprisingly willing to let this slide.

"Hey Yoichi, wanna play Beigoma?" Shuichi asked.

"Yes!" Yoichi responded enthusiastically.

.

The adults were still sitting around the dining table. Koumura and the other maid had put away the remains of dinner and had served cake and coffee to everyone as the conversation turned to the next mission – now only two days away.

"So, have you decided on the team yet?" Tomoya asked. He knew it wasn't a topic Tomoyo liked to hear about, but it was something they would have to talk about sooner or later.

"I have." Isamu told everyone, "We're going to try to do what we had been working on last time. Kenta is going to be the team leader with Mikio, Takeshi, and me along as the team members."

"If that works out, you won't have to go on every mission any more. I'll bet that makes Tomoyo happy!" Yuki blurted out.

"Indeed it does!" Tomoyo agreed.

"Have you thought about increasing the size of the team?" Melissa asked.

"You mean… take more than four on each mission?" Isamu asked while Tomoyo almost choked on her cake.

"No. I mean, getting more team members so that each member doesn't have to go as often." Melissa replied quickly. Having heard several stories of the platinum blond's power and athleticism, she knew that she did NOT want to get Tomoyo mad at her.

"I hadn't really thought of increasing the size of our team. I'll have to discuss it with The Boss." Isamu gave a _what do you think_ glance at Tomoyo.

"That seems to be a trend around here lately, doesn't it?" Yuki pointed out, "Kotomi is increasing the size of Team Okazaki too."

Everyone laughed either at Yuki's little joke or at it's well timed effect of making Tomoya spray his coffee out his mouth and nose. When the noise of the laughter died down, it was Yukine's voice that suddenly brought the room to complete silence.

"Team Sunohara will be getting bigger too." was all Yukine said.

"WAIT!" Youhei threw one hand up as a distraction while he grasped Yukine's hand with the other. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze to let her know that he wasn't upset that she had made that announcement to their friends. But he also wanted to stem any confusion or misunderstandings before they turned into full-fledged rumors. "Before everyone starts congratulating and asking how far along, or about due dates… this is something we have just decided on. We are not preggers yet."

"But, you _are_ trying. Aren't you?" Melissa asked.

"Of course we're trying!" Youhei blustered while Yukine blushed.

"Are you hoping for a boy or a girl this time?" Kyou asked.

"Yes." Youhei answered Kyou with a smirk.

"Youhei..." Kyou growled while displaying a clenched fist.

"This is so wonderful! I can't wait to see all of our children playing together!" Kotomi beamed with happiness. Then she turned to the newest couple and asked, "Tomoyo-chan and Isamu-kun, when are you planning to start having children? Although, I suppose you will need to get married first… so when will that be?"

All the chatter and noise in the room stopped before Kotomi finished asking her question. Half of the room was looking at Kotomi and the other half at Tomoyo. Everyone was in stunned silence. Tomoya had his hand over his face. No matter how hard anyone might wish that this had not just happened, it had.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Kotomi looked around at all the stunned faces. She turned to Tomoya but he was still hiding his face behind his hand. Finally, she turned to Kyou.

"Kotomi-chan." Kyou retreated to the old ways of getting to Kotomi in an attempt to cut through the extreme awkwardness of the moment.

"Kyou-chan?" Kotomi replied.

"That is the kind of question that family members can ask of each other, but only in privacy." Kyou reminded Kotomi. It was not the first time she had given Kotomi that instruction, but the lesson never seemed to stick.

"I… I'm sorry." Kotomi could tell from Kyou's tone that this wasn't the first time she had made this kind of offense. Apparently, it had never seemed important enough to remember – but, looking around the room at the stunned faces and hearing the silence where there had been laughter and happiness before, she regretted not remembering the advice now. Her own cheerfulness plummeted like a stone falling through water. But, it wasn't embarrassment that got to Kotomi. She felt responsible for the sudden awkwardness, and an immense sadness that her inept social skills had ruined everyone's good time… once again. "Tomoya-kun. Could you take me upstairs? I feel like I need to lie down now."

"Yes." Tomoya got up from the table and helped his wife up. As they were leaving the room, there was nothing but silence until they heard a single chair push back and a voice call out.

"Kotomi-chan," Isamu faced the open doorway that Tomoya and Kotomi had already passed through, "I will ask Sakagami Tomoyo to marry me after we finish the explorations."

Turning back to the table he could see that everyone was still in a state of shocked silence, but they were now looking at him. Even Tomoyo seemed shocked, and that worried him.

"I'm sorry, but… I just felt like I had to say something." Isamu stumbled for the right words to say, "I know how Kotomi-chan feels. I may be the only other one here that knows."

"What do you mean?" Kyou asked.

"All you people have these good social graces. I try to do my best, but I never feel right when I'm at a nice place with nice people. I'm always scared that I'll say something stupid, or do something dumb. So mostly, I just keep quiet. But Kotomi-chan – she ain't a coward like me. Even if she makes a mistake sometimes, she still tries. So, please don't be upset with Kotomi-chan. She tries so hard…" Isamu's eyes settled to the floor as his voice trailed off.

"You're not a coward, Isamu-san." Youhei spoke up, "And don't be so worried about Kotomi-chan. We may have all been shocked, but no-one will be upset with her for something like this."

.

"I am truly sorry, Tomoya-kun. Everyone came over because I wanted to have a nice dress-up dinner, and I ruined it." Kotomi said to her husband who was sitting next to her on the bed. "Please to not be too disappointed in me."

Tomoya smiled as he leaned over Kotomi and caressed the hair away from her forehead. He wasn't actually upset at all but he couldn't let Kotomi know that he found the whole thing hysterical. It was all he could do to keep from bursting out laughing when he saw the shocked faces of Tomoyo, Isamu, and Kyou. As embarrassing as Kotomi's gaffe had been, it would have been insulting if Tomoya had followed it up with laughing at their friend's shock and embarrassment. He had turned to Youhei for support but his old friend was also struggling to keep from succumbing to the comedy of the moment. His last recourse was to hide his face behind his hand and hope that nobody noticed.

"Don't worry about it." he said softly.

"I believe that is the problem." Kotomi told Tomoya of her self analysis, "I think the problem is that I don't worry about such things, so I place no importance in them. Because of that, I tend to repeat these mistakes and embarrass you and Kyou-chan."

"I am really not all that troubled by it." Tomoya kissed Kotomi on her forehead and squeezed her hand, "But I do need to go back downstairs and see to our guests, so you just close your eyes and get some rest. Kyou-chan and I will be back before you know it."

"Thank you, Tomoya-kun. Perhaps I will get some rest after all." Kotomi didn't think she would be able to sleep now. The reason to go upstairs was just an excuse to allow her to escape the awkwardness that she had created. She hadn't actually been feeling tired – and yet, her eyes felt heavy as they closed and she was asleep before Tomoya had made it back to the bedroom door.

.

Kyou was waiting for Tomoya at the bottom of the stairs. She had a troubled look on her face that didn't look like it came from Kotomi's recent social gaffe.

"Is she okay?" Kyou asked as she watched Tomoya descend the stairs.

"She's asleep." Tomoya told the lavender haired woman with purple eyes that matched Kotomi's.

"Already? I guess she really was tired." Kyou had assumed that Kotomi was just trying to get away from her blunder too.

"Well, she is almost at thirteen weeks. She does tend to get tired easily." Tomoya paused at the base of the stairs for Kyou to take his arm as they walked back into the dining room. As they walked past the dojo, he peered in and saw Sugisaka and the three boys playing with the tops on the old drum, but he didn't see Michiko. Trusting Sugisaka with the children, he asked Kyou, "Is everything okay down here?"

"Yeah… to be honest, everyone laughed it off after you took Kotomi upstairs. Youhei was hoping you would come back down though. I think he wants to talk to you about something important." Kyou told him.

 _If it was anything about the experiment in the park, he would want to talk to Kotomi or Melissa. So it's probably about the house._ Yukine had approached Kotomi about buying the house recently and with the announcement they just made, it only made sense. As far as Tomoya was concerned, they could have it. Even though he was reconciled with his father, that house still held bad memories for him. But Youhei was too proud to accept a gift like that, so he would have to come up with something.

"Probably about buying the Okazaki house." Tomoya grinned.

"Probably so." Kyou agreed.

"How is everyone else?" Tomoya asked.

"Most of the girls are clustered around Yukine now. They're talking about the new kids in our futures…" Kyou let that comment die without finishing it. She knew that both Kotomi and Tomoya would welcome any child that Kyou brought into the family. The Okazaki matriarch had actually pushed her in that direction and her own parents would probably be thrilled, but she just wasn't ready to make that step yet. Especially not after the recent nightmare that had reminded her of that awful fortune from years ago.

"Hey, what to you think about a trip to Hokkaido?" Tomoya could tell that Kyou was feeling glum about something and decided to change the subject.

"When?" Kyou asked.

"This coming weekend. It will be my grandmother's 65th birthday. I thought we might surprise her." Tomoya said.

"Baka! That's sweet of you to think about her that way, but you really are an idiot." Kyou laughed at him.

"What?" Tomoya held up his hands in innocent ignorance.

"If it was just you, then that would be a nice surprise. But when you show up with a dozen others – and expect them to put you up for the night… that's just rude." Kyou jabbed her elbow into Tomoya's ribs for emphasis.

"A dozen others?" Tomoya asked.

"Sure… maybe even more!" She started ticking people off with her fingers, "You, me, Kotomi, and the kids would be seven."

"Six." Tomoya corrected her.

"Seven! Or do you think your grandmother doesn't want to see your latest daughter from another world?" Kyou dug into his ribs again.

"Oh yeah." Tomoya had to agree on that.

"Then Nagisa and Ryou would have to come along since they are Ushio's legal parents. I'm sure your grandmother would want to meet them too." Kyou said.

"You're probably right about that. So, we're up to nine." Tomoya added.

"Tomoyo has always been a hit with your Hokkaido relatives, so you'll need to take her and her fiancé, so she can show him off. And don't forget your cousin Yuki either." Kyou smiled as she easily hit her target number.

"Wow, I never realized it was such an entourage now." Tomoya exclaimed.

"I'm not even done yet!" Kyou laughed, "Other people you should consider inviting are the Furukawas, Melissa, Sugisaka, and Koumura. I could probably get the number up to twenty-five, you know."

"Her house isn't that big." Tomoya reminded Kyou.

"I know." Kyou chirped.

"This is sounding less like a surprise party and more like an invasion." Tomoya groaned. But the tactic had worked. Whatever was troubling Kyou before was buried under the thought of making last minute plans for a trip to Hokkaido for family and close friends. For that, Tomoya was grateful.

.

 **Monday night, November 15th – The park across the street from the Furukawa Bakery**

* * *

All of the equipment was in place, the teams had finished their checklists, and the countdown was getting close to the first launch window. But there wasn't nearly the fanfare that there had been the previous month. Under Youhei's direction, the police detail had prepared for even larger crowds, but he wasn't disappointed to see a much smaller turnout. It was just a shame that he had to send so many of the extra officers home early, after they had taken the time to show up. But it couldn't be helped, and it was no fault of Youhei's either. It all had to do with the weather. No-one wanted to come out on this abysmally cold and wet night.

The previous day had not been so bad, but the weather had deteriorated rapidly. Since the morning, rain had been falling constantly. There was standing water in the streets and the grounds in the park had become muddy in the places where anything peeked above the pools of rain water. But rain wasn't the only thing falling – the temperature had been dropping all day as well. By the time the four particle accelerator trucks were set up, the rain had turned to sleet and the gusting wind had blown down one of the recovery team's pergolas.

The exploration team's pergola was still safe and, for the moment, dry… if not warm. The side flaps had been drawn and tied down, to keep out the rain and sleet, but that meant it was buffeted all the more from the gusting wind. The thick canvas popped and flapped and those huddled inside could hear the pergola's metal frame and cables creaking as they strained to resist the storm's onslaught. Anyone who had grown up in the area knew that these autumn storms were rare, but the ferocity of the rain and wind was disconcerting to those unfamiliar to it.

"Is this a typhoon?" Melissa asked while huddling close to Takeo.

"No, just a nasty winter storm." Tomoya answered her, "They're not usually this bad in November, but it can happen."

"Do you think they should cancel this mission due to the weather?" Melissa suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Kenta laughed, "Wherever we end up, they're bound to be having better weather than this!"

"True dat!" Takeo agreed.

"You rat!" Melissa punched Takeo in the arm, "You would run off to some vacation world and leave me in this rotten storm?"

"Hey!" Takeo tried to defend himself from Melissa's assault, "I just agreed with Kenta, I didn't say it would be a vacation spot!"

Melissa and Takeo's antics served to break up the dreariness of the foul weather for most of the people there. But not everyone. Tomoyo was once again in her terrible place. In the complex machinations between the city government and this great scientific achievement, she found herself thrust into a leadership position where she had to stay calm and appear positive. Not just as a representative of the city government, but for the benefit of the guys she had helped train for this job. While at the same time, she dreaded the moment when she would watch four of the men that she had trained - wink out of existence. All too soon, they would be gone from this world with only a 'probability' that they would all return. Sure, the probability was better than it had been the time before, but it still wasn't 'good' by anyone's definition. The fact that they hadn't lost anyone yet was, in her opinion, pure luck.

"First launch in ten minutes." a voice sounded out in the ears of everyone wearing a communicator. And, since they didn't have any guests with them this time around, that meant everyone heard the announcement.

"Is the sensor ball in position?" Kotomi asked the tech team without taking her eyes away from the screen full of data on her rugged laptop.

"Yes hakase." a response came back immediately, "We've been running tests and it is reporting back perfectly."

"All sensors are operational?" Kotomi asked. There had been some problems with the prototype and she hadn't heard a definitive update yet.

"One of the temperature sensors is not responding, but we have good data on the other temperature sensors." the technician replied.

"How many temperature sensors are in that ball?" Tomoya asked.

"Four." Kotomi answered his question and expounded on the answer, "There are four of each sensor in the ball. None of the sensors, or even the cameras, are large or expensive, so we decided to go for quadruple redundancy."

"Oh… well I guess we should get something back then." Tomoya commented dryly. He was trying to be humorous with his retort, but forgot who was in the audience.

"Yes, Tomoya-kun." Kotomi replied to Tomoya's comment with total sincerity, "That is why it was designed that way. With quadruple redundancy, the likelihood of not getting any useful data is so low as to be insignificant."

"Yes dear." Tomoya replied while others tried to stifle their laughter.

"So, what kind of place should we expect this time?" Isamu asked Kotomi - mostly to end the awkwardness of Tomoya's failed joke.

"Oh yes," Kotomi turned her rugged laptop around so everyone could see the screen. They all looked at the displayed waveform out of habit but Melissa was the only other person in the room that really knew what she was looking at. "I selected this waveform for today's mission. Of the available waveforms, it appears to be as different as possible from the waveform used in the last attempt."

"The waveform that we used last time… wasn't that waveform selected because you suspected it to be the _closest_ to us in time?" Isamu asked.

"Yes, there were signatures in that waveform that led me to that conclusion. It should also have been close to us in other environmental aspects like climate, socio-economic conditions, and personal circumstances, but that turned out not to be the case. So, to verify that hypothesis about time, we will need to test it using this waveform." Kotomi answered.

"And environmentally?" Melissa asked.

"All we can be sure of is that there will be a Tomoya-kun and a Nagisa-chan. Beyond that, anything is possible this time." Kotomi answered.

Several of _The Boys_ whistled at this announcement. They could be stepping into the strangest environment yet… and they were excited.

"Ya lucky bastaad!" Iwao smacked Mikio on the back of the head in a playful way.

"How soon?" Tomoyo asked.

"Huh?" Kotomi wasn't sure what Tomoyo-chan was asking.

"After the sensor ball is launched… how soon will we know if you were right?" Tomoyo asked the resident genius.

"It should start taking measurements immediately and it is programmed to call back in five minutes with the first of the collected data." Kotomi assured her.

"It will have the time information you are looking for then?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yes… as long as the destination world has a JJY system that the sensor ball can receive, then we should have the time data after the first broadcast." Kotomi elaborated on her previous answer.

"So… in about ten minutes we will know if your hypothesis is correct." Tomoyo sounded a little terse as she said it.

Isamu picked up on what Tomoyo was thinking. If that was the goal of the mission, then why did the exploration team even need to go? Why couldn't they just send the ball and be done with it? But Isamu knew that there was more to it than that. The primary objective may be for Kotomi to find out if she was right about her guesswork, but there would be other goals. And not all the objectives could be met with just the sensors on that ball. Even as he squeezed her hand to reassure her, they all heard the voice counting down the first launch sequence.

"Three… two… one… zero, the probe is away." the voice sounded in their ears. Everyone except Kotomi was watching the monitors as the black and white patterned ball disappeared from the stormy launch area. No-one was interested enough to be out in the cold wind and rain to watch the live launch of the probe, although most of them would be out there in an hour when it was time to launch the exploration team. And, fortunately for everyone involved, the weather should be a lot better in an hour.

"Huh… I never saw it happen without the light baubles." Tomoya commented. Since he was one of the few people that could see the light baubles without the special glasses, he had only ever seen the launch with the numerous swirling orbs gathering and spiraling into the sky. But they did not appear on the video relay he had been watching.

"That's interesting." Melissa jokingly commented, "I bet Kotomi will be chewing on that bit of data for a while too."

Several of the friends in the pergola turned to Kotomi to see her reaction, but she was staring wide-eyed at her screen in front of her. The first broadcast wasn't supposed to be until five minutes after the launch but she was seeing data coming back at less than a minute of elapsed time. Certainly, the weather was better on the other side, but her eyes were riveted to the time and date code that was being reported back.

 _54 Minutes  
22 Hours  
129 Days  
1993  
Sunday_

"Kotomi?" Tomoyo called out to her.

 _129 Days, 1993_

"Kotomi-chan?" Tomoya tried when his wife didn't respond to Tomoyo's query. But Kotomi didn't respond to him either.

 _That would be… May 9, 1993..._

"Earth to Kotomi-chan!" Melissa said loudly - and apparently startlingly enough to get the girl genius' attention.

"Huh?" Kotomi finally responded. She sounded like she had forgotten that everyone was still there and just realized that she was in a room with other people. Her hands flew over her keyboard as she replied, "I apologize for my inattention. I need to make sure that I am not getting anomalous data."

"Anomalous data?" Tomoyo sounded confused as she checked her watch, "But it hasn't been five minutes yet, has it?"

"Yes… that is why I must be sure." Kotomi abruptly folded up her laptop and stood. In a few moments, she had her raincoat on and was heading for the door-flaps. "There is something I need to check on."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Tomoya started to get up but Kotomi waved him off.

"No, that will be unnecessary. I believe it will be best if you stay here." Kotomi said quickly before she hurried out through the billowing flaps.

"Okay," Tomoya took his seat again and figured that whatever it was that Kotomi had to check on must be technical. She usually liked to have him with her when she had to talk to other people. But if it was technical, she often took Melissa with her instead. Tomoya was wondering about that as he looked across the table and saw Melissa still sitting next to Takeo and chatting about keeping dry in the storm.

"That's odd." Youhei observed, "Kotomi didn't take Tomoya or Melissa with her?" He was about to call out to one of the uniform officers to find Kotomi and shadow her while she was out in the bad weather. Before he could hit the transmit button, his police radio started blaring several conversations. With the voices stepping on each other the way they were, it was impossible to understand anything. Youhei pushed the control buttons that would send an override tone telling everyone to back off for the moment. Then he squeezed the transmit button on his unit and said, "This is Sunohara. I want one person to tell me what is going on."

"This is number five sir. I am over at the street that borders the west side of the park. We have a traffic accident here. It looks like a delivery truck hydroplaned on the wet road and crashed into one of the project trucks. There was a big electrical discharge and several people are being treated for electrical shock and burns by the emergency personnel."

"Electrical discharge?" Melissa glanced down at the diagram on the table. Truck number three should be the one on the west side street. Touching her own communicator – she called out, "This is Melissa, why was there an energy build-up on accelerator three?"

"Melissa-hakase, there was an energy build-up on all the accelerators. They were just firing on the target area."

"What?" Melissa's confusion was evident as she asked, "You mean several minutes ago when the probe was sent?"

"No, hakase. This was the second firing." the voice came back from the communicator.

"What…" Melissa looked around at the others in the room and saw that all eight of The Boys were still there. A sinking feeling began to accompany a suspicion as she asked the next question, "What second firing are you referring to? All the members of the survey team are still here. Did Kotomi-chan request a second probe to be sent?"

"No hakase," another voice replied, "all the other probes are still here."

Melissa was dumbstruck for a moment before she quickly opened her own laptop and started querying everything she could find on the mysterious second firing that she knew nothing about.

"Who authorized the second firing?" Tomoya asked. He too was starting to get a bad feeling about this sudden and unexpected turn of events.

"Kotomi did." Melissa replied as she looked at the data on her own laptop. Her computer was the same model as Kotomi's, and they had made plans to sync the two at some point - but that hadn't happened yet. However, even without the sync, she had enough log data to be able to find out that the instructions to immediately launch a second firing to the exact same waveform had indeed, gone out from Kotomi's laptop.

"This is Sunohara." Youhei said into his police radio, "All units listen up… does anyone have eyes on Ichinose-Okazaki Kotomi right now?"

There was silence for several moments before his radio finally crackled to life again.

"This is unit three sir," a gruff voice said, "I saw her heading into the target area about ten minutes ago."

"What the hell?" Isamu was on his feet but stunned at what he was hearing. He gave a quick hand signal and Kenta, Mikio, and Takeshi were immediately moving to gear up and get ready to move out to the target area.

"How soon can you spin the accelerators back up?" Melissa asked into her communicator, but the fact that she wasn't getting any data from panel three was telegraphing that the answer wasn't going to be anything she wanted to hear.

"Melissa-hakase… accelerator three and the truck it was attached to… are on fire."

"Oh no... " Melissa started looking into everything that was on her laptop. She had lots of equipment status and logs, but without the sync with Kotomi's laptop, she was missing the critical target data. _Think dammit, THINK!_ Melissa tried to order her thoughts in the chaos of everything that was happening. _Even if I don't have the target data on my laptop… it should still be in the buffer memory on the accelerators. So, as long as we don't power them down, I should be able to retrieve the data. Then, we should be able to get a replacement accelerator truck in place and send a rescue team._ Before putting her plan into action, she would need to check on one or two things. Starting with the most critical, she touched her communicator and called out, "Please tell me that the target data is still in the remaining three accelerators!"

"No hakase," a sorrowful voice replied, "when accelerator three was destroyed, all the other accelerator control units automatically reset."

"No…" The feeling of failure was complete. She mentally grasped about for some other possibility, but she already knew that without the target data, there was nothing she could do. Melissa turned to look across the table at Tomoya. She could see that he already knew what this meant. Melissa sat down heavily and put her face in her hands.

"What… what does this mean?" Kenta asked. The other expedition members, who had been readying themselves to head out to the launch area, turned to see Melissa in her despair.

"Kotomi and I never finished the project to sync our laptops, so that means that I don't have a copy of the waveform data that she selected for today's mission. Ordinarily, we would just download it from the memory in the accelerators… but they were reset after the crash - so they don't have a copy of the data either. That means that Kotomi-chan's laptop was the only one that had the exact waveform…" Melissa trembled as she announced the prognosis to the quiet room, "If she took her laptop with her, we may not have a way to get her back."

.

* * *

 **Glossary**

.

Beigoma: A game played by spinning tops on a canvas surface that has been stretched over a bucket or drum.

Hakama: Pants for the men's kimono.

Iromuji Kimono: (Iro = color, Muji = plain) A kimono made of a single color, other than black or white. As with other kimonos, a bright color indicates youth while a subdued color indicates maturity. The fabric may be plain or have rinzu.

JJY: Japan's radio broadcast system for time code. Similar to WWVB in the US.

Obi: the wide belt that is worn over a kimono.

Okazaki, Shino: (born 19 November, 1945 in Hokkaido, Japan) Mother of Naoyuki. Grandmother of Tomoya and Yuki. Great-grandmother of Shuichi, Shuji, Michiko, and Ushio. She lives in Hokkaido on the Okazaki family farm which makes Plum Wine, among other things.

Onii-san: big (older) brother

Rinzu: Woven patterns of the same color as the fabric.

Truncated Icosahedron: a ball made of hexagons and pentagons – a soccer ball.


	31. Chapter 31 - Finale

**Tuesday morning, November 16 – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

For Tomoya, life seemed to be moving along in automatic motions. Things happened around him whether he wanted to be a part of it or not. Lots of people talked to him. Someone brought him something to drink. The place where Kotomi had been sitting was right next to him, but was so empty now. When he tried to recall his last memory of her sitting there, he realized that he couldn't even remember what clothes she was wearing. He could remember her putting on the bright orange raincoat and pulling the hood over her head… but that was it. It bothered him that his last memory of her was so incomplete.

Later in the morning, after all the injured people around accelerator truck three had been taken care of, Youhei walked him home and waited until he was sure that Tomoya had made it into his house. They said nothing in the long walk home and Tomoya didn't invite him in at the end. Youhei turned around and started walking back to the park. After something like this, he wouldn't be going home for a while. Their would be enough paperwork to keep him busy for the rest of the month. He hated having to deal with all that bureaucratic waste, but all things considered – he would rather a mountain of paperwork than the loss of his cherished Yukine. His heart was heavy as he thought about what his friend now had to go through.

When Tomoya entered the house, it was still dark and quiet – it wasn't yet time for Kyou, Yuki, and the kids to start getting ready for school. For several long minutes, he stood at the end of the hallway and wondered whether he should go upstairs to his bedroom, or just sit in a chair in the living room. Or just stand here…

"Tomoya-sama?" Koumura's kind old voice called out in the darkness.

Tomoya's eyes found the old man in the silent shadows, but he said nothing.

Koumura arched an eyebrow at the young man that was usually quite respectful to him. Then he saw the haunted look of loss in Tomoya's face and knew that something had gone dreadfully wrong.

"I was about to start preparing breakfast and the day's bento boxes. Why don't you come sit down and I'll bring you some tea." Koumura gently suggested.

Tomoya followed the old man until he was seated at the kitchen table. From where he sat, he could see the window that overlooked the manicured back yard with the flower beds and the white enameled lawn furniture. But there was nothing to see now. It was still dark outside and heavy clouds blocked any light from the stars and the moon, so all he could see was his own face reflected back from the darkness of the glass.

Koumura quietly placed a cup of tea on the table next to where Tomoya was sitting. Although he went back to his work in the kitchen, he kept an eye on the troubled young man.

.

When Kyou awoke, she noticed that she was still alone in the bed. That wasn't terribly unusual on the mornings after one of Kotomi's experiments, but it was a little disheartening. She had long become accustomed to waking up on one side of Tomoya and gazing across at Kotomi. For several years that first sight of Kotomi, also next to Tomoya, had often generated a jealous reaction. But that was another thing she had become accustomed to, and now she looked forward to seeing the brilliant purple eyes looking back at her – first thing in the morning.

Lazily rolling out of bed, Kyou reached for her cell phone to see if there was anything from Tomoya or Kotomi. Strangely, there was nothing from either of them, but there was something from Youhei. She thought about putting the phone back down and dealing with it later, but there was something odd about this. Touching the screen, she opened the message.

 _Youhei: As soon as you see this message, get to a place where you can talk to me in private and call me. It doesn't matter what time it is. This is important. CALL ME._

If this had been several years ago, Kyou would have ignored this as one of Youhei's silly jokes. But Youhei had become a responsible and reliable person. Seeing that text from him now filled her with trepidation. However, apprehension or not, she needed to know what was going on. After putting on a house robe, she went into the connected study and called Youhei's cell phone.

"Kyou… thanks for calling me. Is Tomoya around?" Youhei answered after the first ring and spoke with a tired voice.

"No. He wasn't in bed when I woke up. Are you sure they came home?" Even as she asked the question, she realized what was odd about Youhei's inquiry. He had only asked about Tomoya. Even though it was possible for them to come home separately, they never did that. Tomoya always stuck around until Kotomi was ready to go home. Kyou knew that Youhei was aware of that… and yet, he had only asked about Tomoya.

"Listen… Kyou…" Youhei sounded like he was having a hard time getting the words out.

"Youhei, what happened to Kotomi?" Kyou demanded.

"We're still trying to figure everything out, but it looks like… she went to another world through that gate thing." Youhei struggled to put the right words together.

"Is she okay?" Kyou asked.

"We don't know." Youhei admitted.

"What do you mean – you don't know? The radio's work across the gateway don't they?" She pulled the phone away from her head long enough to see the time then demanded, "Surely by now they've sent someone after her?"

"There was an accident. One of the particle accelerator transports was hit by a delivery truck. Because of the accident, the destination information was lost." Youhei did his best to explain but he knew that it wasn't enough. He knew that right now, Kyou was feeling anger, fear, and betrayal. He knew this, because it was exactly what he had felt as soon as he discovered what had happened.

"What… what does that mean?" Kyou held the phone with both hands as her legs lost their strength and she sat down heavily into the plush desk chair.

"The way it looks right now, we may never be able to get her back." Youhei broke the news as gently as he could, but he knew how hard this would hit Kyou. He had watched the two become very close over the years.

"Oh no." Kyou said as she started to tremble, "I… I have to tell the children."

"Not yet." Youhei's voice sounded confident to the ego-wounded Kyou. "You said that Tomoya wasn't in bed when you woke up, right?"

"Yes, that's right." Kyou answered.

"I dropped him off there a few hours ago. You should look for him first. He was pretty shook up." Youhei suggested.

"Hey, I'm pretty shook up too!" Kyou yelled into her phone.

"I know you are, Kyou. I know how much Kotomi meant to you. And… I hate to play the guilt card but he was there for you back when you were going through hell. And he needs you now." Youhei felt guilty himself having to use this on her, but he had to get Kyou stable, determined, and moving as soon as possible. And unfortunately, this was the only way he knew how.

"But…"

"Kyou! Fujibayashi Kyou! He needs you now! And after that, those kids are going to need you! You are the only one that can do this, Kyou. The only one… without you, they don't have a chance." Youhei's shouting mimicked the authoritarian voice of the senior instructors at the Tokyo Police Academy. "You've always acted tough as nails, but this is _real_ and there are people that desperately need you _now_. So what are you going to do? Are you strong enough to meet this challenge, or are you going to crumble like a whining, pathetic weakling?

"Youhei!" Kyou felt for a moment like she was about to try to reach through the telephone and strangle that insulting shrimp. She was back on her feet, glaring at the cell phone, and would have kicked him a hundred meters if he had been there. But she wasn't stupid. She knew the dirty trick he had just pulled on her and… she knew why he had to do it. "I'm better now, Youhei… thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." Youhei breathed a sigh of relief. If she had gone off the deep end, he had no doubt that she would have run all the way to the park just to kick his ass up between his shoulder blades.

"All right… I'm going to go find Tomoya." Kyou said after taking a deep breath.

"Good luck, Kyou." Youhei said before disconnecting the line.

.

Kyou didn't see Tomoya anywhere upstairs, nor did she see him downstairs in the dojo or the living room. When she got to the kitchen, she saw Koumura busy at work putting different elements in all the bento boxes as he did every morning.

Koumura heard Kyou approaching and looked up. There was already redness around her eyes and she looked worried. Whatever had happened, he was sure that she already knew what it was. Catching her eye, he nodded over toward the kitchen table where Tomoya hadn't moved since he sat there.

Tomoya was still staring out the window as Kyou approached and sat down next to him. There was some light out there now, but not much. The skies were heavily overcast even though the rain had died down to a light drizzle. But, there was enough of the dull gray light to see the wrought iron table and chairs in front of the flowerbed. They were the same table and chairs where he had sat with Kotomi back when they were in grade school… and then again in high school. He had seen her sitting in those chairs many times, usually reading. She would read to herself, or to the children. A few times, she had even read to him… but he usually fell asleep to the sound of her ethereal voice. His thoughts about Kotomi were interrupted when he felt a hand squeezing his own.

"Tomoya-kun." Kyou said to him.

"Kyou-chan?" Tomoya turned to see Kyou's wet eyes and sorrowful expression and it was a trigger for his own emotions. He fell out of his chair to his knees in front of Kyou. Wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her chest, he gave into the wracking sobs of his despair.

"Oh, Tomoya." Kyou bent down and kissed the top of his head while his body spasmed through it's emotional outpouring.

"Why? Why did she do it? She went off alone Kyou. Alone! She never likes to be alone. Why? Why? Why…"

.

 **Tuesday morning, November 16th – University of Hokkaido**

* * *

Kobayashi-hakase had got the call in the early morning hours. It hadn't taken him long to get ready to leave, but Melissa had sent him a mountain of data to process. As luck would have it, he had been in a place where he had easy access to lots of analysis assets. The University of Hokkaido had been an early supporter of the Ichinose research. When he explained what had happened to an auditorium full of professors and graduate students, he was pleased to see that he had their enthusiastic support. In the next two days, over three hundred brilliant minds had examined every log file, every scrap of code, and every journal entry that Melissa had sent them. And she had sent them everything. That is… everything that Melissa had access to. Unfortunately, the most critical data was beyond her reach – in the laptop Kotomi had taken with her.

There was a moment when they thought they might have a breakthrough. A recent drive backup of Kotomi's laptop was restored into another machine and they found the folder with the matrix files she was considering for the November experiment. However, the celebration was short lived when they realized that it was only narrowed down to a sixteen by sixteen by sixteen matrix. With over four thousand possible destinations, it wasn't looking good for a quick retrieval at all. The mathematicians in the room pointed out that, at one exploration per month, it would take over three hundred years to search them all.

"All right then, the solution won't be in a brute force search of every possible world. Even if we were able to search one world a week instead of one per month, that would still take… almost eighty years." Kobayashi-hakase told them, "We need to dig deeper and come up with other ways to narrow down our search criteria. I want all of you to think outside the box. This is my challenge to the mathematics, physics, and engineering students of the University of Hokkaido: show me what you're capable of."

"YES!" the assembled scholars shouted.

.

 **Thursday afternoon, November 18th – Ichinose Residence**

* * *

As much as he had wanted to stay and work with the research teams, he knew he had several important tasks to perform. They were tasks that had been entrusted only to him, and he could not put them off any longer. So, on this crisp Thursday afternoon, he found himself back in that town again. All evidence of the rains were gone and the air was crisp and cold as he walked up and down the familiar streets from the train station toward the Ichinose residence. He wasn't in a particular hurry, so he decided to make a small detour to the park where it all happened.

There should have been something there to commemorate the catastrophe that was hurting so many people. A burnt place, or an ugly scar in the ground, or a monument… any of those would have felt appropriate. But there was nothing. The place was back to being an ordinary park with swings, slides, a baseball field… Of course, that was the agreement with the local city government after all. Following the night of one of Kotomi's research projects, the park had to be returned into the condition it had been in before the experiment. The pergolas had been taken down and removed. All of the particle accelerator vehicles had been sent back to their warehouse. So now… it just looked like a park again, with no evidence that something terrible had happened here only a few days ago.

He was about to leave the park in the direction of the Ichinose house when the smell of freshly baked bread wafted over to him. _Ah yes, the Furukawa Bakery. Perhaps I'll pop in and give my regards to the lucky grandparents._ Hoping for some bright spot of happiness in his day, he pushed the door open and heard the friendly tinkling of the bell. But when he entered the bakery, he wasn't greeted by either of the people he expected to see.

"Ah, Kobayashi-san! It's good to see you again." the polite young lady behind the counter smiled at him.

"Um…" Kobayashi was mentally fumbling in an attempt to remember the young lady that obviously knew him. He knew that it was not the Furukawa daughter or her partner, but he couldn't place her.

"You may not recognize me in this work attire. I am Sunohara Yukine. My husband is a detective with the local police and my son plays with the Okazaki children. In fact, he's there now." Yukine helped the older man to remember, while moving about the bakery with a pair of tongs and a large bag.

"You are absolutely right. I did not recognize you in that apron and… your hair is different too, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yes. I put it up like this when I work in the bakery." Yukine smiled more brightly since he did remember her. While she selected different pastries and breads for the bag she asked, "I guess you came to town to help with the search effort to find Kotomi-chan?"

"Y… yes. That's what I'm here to do." he didn't feel good lying to the young lady, but needlessly telling her bad news wouldn't be a good thing either.

"I'm sorry the Furukawa's weren't here to see you. Akio-san got another acting job in Tokyo and Sanae-san is still at the middle school where she is teaching." Yukine took the bag up to the counter and began ringing up the contents on the old register.

"It's quite all right. Perhaps I shall see them some other time." Kobayashi said as he started to turn towards the door. _There's a better chance that I'll see them again than I will ever see Kotomi_ _again_ _– what with all those worlds to search._

"4096." Yukine announced.

"What!" an alarmed Kobayashi spun around and looked at the smiling young lady at the counter. _How does she know the number of possible worlds in the search list?_

"That's the total for the pastries and breads I put in the bag – 4096 yen. I selected only the ones that I know they like at the Ichinose house. I'll pay for it myself but, would you mind taking them up there for me?" Yukine asked.

"Certainly." the older gentleman pulled out his wallet and handed over a 5000 yen note, "But I insist on paying for this."

.

With a suitcase in one hand and a bag of bread in the other, Kobayashi Jun was finally standing at the front door of the old Ichinose house. For too many years, Kotomi had shut herself up alone in this house – unwilling to talk to him or anyone else. All that time, he had futilely tried to talk to her, but she would not see him and the front of the house became very familiar since it was as far as he ever got. The house was only familiar from the front though. Kotomi had made modifications to the inside and the back of the house, but he had approved of them. Those modifications were intended to host not just Kotomi, but a good number of family and friends as well. Kobayashi-hakase was glad of that; he felt that she had been alone in that house for far too long. For many years, he had not cared for the Ichinose house – but it had become a very happy place where Kotomi could be surrounded by the people that loved her. It had taken many years, but the house had become a home again. And now, he would be entering the home that was missing its Kotomi.

"Welcome Kobayashi-san, may I help you with the bags?" Koumura answered the door shortly after Kobayashi rang the bell.

"Please, take the breads and pastries. They are for everyone. But I'll hang onto the suitcase." Kobayashi said.

"You do not expect to be staying long?" Koumura asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I'm afraid I do not bring very good news with me." Kobayashi admitted.

"Tomoya is a smart young man. He knows this will be a daunting task." Koumura confided, "And he is not so poor a host that he would have you leave because you have bad news to bear."

"Very well then." Kobayashi handed his suitcase over to the old butler and followed him into the house.

.

Kobayashi chatted with Tomoya for a while about the vacation he had taken with Kotomi on the southern island over the summer. The small villa where they stayed had been Kobayashi's vacation home, and a place where he had hoped he could send Tomoya and Kotomi again some day. But that was looking doubtful now. Without having to say so, both of them knew that they were chatting idly until Kyou and the others arrived. Then, Kobayashi would have to get down to serious matters. Neither of them looked forward to that.

They didn't have long to chat before Kyou and Yuki came in with the two Okazaki boys and the Yoshino's daughter. With Yoichi, Michiko, Ushio, and Yasuo already in the house, the place was bursting with children's voices.

"You certainly have a lot of children here." Kobayashi observed.

"Kotomi loved having the children around." Tomoya told him. "It was something she missed from her own childhood."

"I… see." Kobayashi felt a sting of guilt from Tomoya's remark, but in truth – Kotomi had been an isolated child from long before her parents were killed in the airplane accident.

"The children seem to be in fairly good spirits. Have… have they been told?" Kobayashi quietly asked Tomoya.

"We told them that she is lost and may be gone for a while, but we are trying real hard to get her back as soon as we can." Tomoya told the older man.

"I see." Kobayashi felt his guts twist at Tomoya's words. He hoped the young man would be right, but that was not the message he was here to give them today.

"Sugisaka, will you be able to watch them all for a bit? I believe Kobayashi-hakase has something he needs to tell us." Tomoya asked the red haired maid.

"She won't be alone." Nagisa smiled sweetly and told them, "I'm here to help too."

"Thank you Nagisa-sama." Sugisaka bowed slightly to Tomoya and Nagisa, then turned and ushered all the children into the dojo to play.

Tomoya watched with amusement as Nagisa and Sugisaka went off to handle all the children. Considering how they met, it was miraculous to see something like this now. _Only someone as sweet and forgiving as Nagisa could have made that happen._ Then he glanced at Kyou and realized it wasn't all due to Nagisa after all. _And, of course, Sugisaka's belief that if she ever did something mean to Nagisa again, Kyou would eat the red-head's soul… might have something to do with it too._

.

Tomoya, Kyou, Yuki, and Melissa were attentive as Kobayashi pulled out a folder and placed it on the desk in front of him. Tomoya had let him have the desk in the study since he believed that Kobayashi was there to give them the latest news. However, the presentation that Kobayashi was there to give was not what any of them expected.

"Was Sakagami Tomoyo unable to make this meeting?" Kobayashi asked.

"She sends her regrets, but she had some prior arrangements at City Hall that she couldn't get out of." Kyou replied.

"I suppose it won't matter. From what I've heard, she is no longer your girlfriend. Is that correct?" Kobayashi asked Tomoya.

"That's… true." Tomoya answered with a bit of confusion. He didn't see why their personal relationship would affect the search efforts for Kotomi. He began to wonder what Kobayashi's real reason was for being here.

"As you all know, I am Kotomi-chan's godfather." the old man began. He could see from their expressions that they were figuring out that this wasn't what they were expecting and he knew that he was about to make it worse. But that was his duty. "As well as her godfather, I am also the executor of her living will."

"What!" Yuki shouted, "Why are we talking about a will? She's just missing, she's not dead!"

"A living will is for someone who is incapacitated, but not dead. It covers situations where the person can't make decisions for themselves but it is usually for specific medical instructions." Tomoya both answered Yuki's outburst and contested Kobayashi's statement.

"Usually… but Kotomi made some special provisions that are now in effect. The provisions are to be executed if she is missing, for any reason." Kobayashi said.

"That does sound like Kotomi." Tomoya recalled all the times she emphasized that she didn't want what happened to her – to happen to her children.

"I am truly sorry for this, but I was sworn to this duty by Kotomi herself." Kobayashi apologized to everyone in the room.

Kyou said nothing, but her fists were clenching so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

"It's okay." Tomoya said as he reached over and put his hand on Kyou's, "We all know how much you care for Kotomi. No-one will blame you for doing your duty."

"Thank you." Kobayashi was about to open the folder but decided otherwise, "If you don't mind, I will give you the summary of what this document says. Then I'll hand it over for you to read as you wish."

"Yes, please." Tomoya replied.

"Very well. It is Kotomi's wish that if she becomes missing, with a small chance of her immediate return, that she should be declared dead at the earliest opportunity." Kobayashi began.

"What! How can you…" Kyou started to object but it was Tomoya that stopped her. Pulling her close, he firmly held her hand.

"Kyou, I know this is hard for you. It's hard for all of us. And it is hard for Kobayashi-hakase too. This isn't something that he randomly decided to do. It is something that Kotomi herself set in motion. So, for now, let's listen to what he has to say." Tomoya said haltingly. Even though he had seen this coming, it was still hard to get those words out.

"Yes… I'm sorry." Kyou still didn't like what she was hearing but she would do as Tomoya asked… for now.

"Professor," Melissa asked Kobayashi, "just out of curiosity… what is the _earliest opportunity_ that she can be declared deceased?"

"I have already begun the paperwork. It will be December 16th." Kobayashi replied.

"But…" Kyou started to snap out a rebuttal, but once again, Tomoya waved her off. Instead she stewed while Melissa got to follow up her own question.

"So… about a month from now." Melissa pondered for a moment, then asked another question, "And if we discover a methodology to find her in that time?"

"Depending on how promising that methodology is, it could stop the process." Kobayashi answered. Melissa seemed unphased, but Kyou started to look hopeful. He didn't want to squash all hope, but Kobayashi felt compelled to warn them, "We have already determined that even if we increased the explorations to once a week, it could still take up to eighty years to find her. And that is insufficient to stop the clock."

"I see." Melissa was in thought but didn't look like she was beaten.

Tomoya was hopeful at seeing her expression. She had been looking depressed since the day they lost her and Tomoya was worried that she was feeling responsible for the loss of her mentor and her best friend.

"There are a few more stipulations all of you should be should be aware of." Kobayashi said to get their attention again, "As you know, Kotomi's greatest concern was for the children. According to what I have read in these documents, she has been creating safeties and taking measures to insure that her children will have the opportunity to grow up in a happy and loving environment – no matter what might happen to those whose care they are in. Fujibayashi Kyou… from what I have read here, she was able to acquire a promise from you regarding this possibility."

"Um… yes?" Kyou wasn't ready to be put on the spot and was trying desperately to remember what kind of promise she made regarding Kotomi's possible disappearance or demise.

"She recorded your promise that if anything should ever happen to her that you would marry Tomoya, be a mother to her children, and… give Tomoya some children of your own." Kobayashi sounded like he was paraphrasing what was actually written and, knowing Kotomi, everyone wondered just how colorful her exact words were.

"What! But… I um…" Kyou sputtered as she blushed.

"It's okay, Kyou. Kotomi told me about your promise." Tomoya said in an effort to calm her down.

"WHAT!" Kyou gasped in a reaction that immediately told Tomoya that his effort had backfired.

"Me too." Melissa gave a wan smile as she confessed that she also knew of Kyou's embarrassing promise.

"Ah!" Kyou turned to Yuki who she had been working side-by-side with since she started her special school project.

"Tomoyo-senpai told me about it." Yuki admitted.

"Tomoyo knew?" Kyou's embarrassment was reaching devastation levels. Part of her mind was screaming, _If Kotomi does come back, I'm going to kill her!_

"Kyou, I think you should know… what you promised her back then. It was one of the happiest moments in her life. She was so thrilled, I'm surprised she didn't engrave it on a monument." Melissa told the lavender haired girl whose blush had attained health threatening levels.

"So, Onii-san and Kyou-sensei will need to think about getting married some day, if we can't get Kotomi back in a month… is that right?" Yuki asked Kobayashi.

"Not _some day_." Kobayashi took a deep breath and told them what Kotomi had written, "They are to be married within a week of Kotomi being declared deceased. She was very insistent about that."

"A… a week?" Kyou's battered psyche couldn't take any more surprises. She tried to focus on the old man looking at her from the other side of the desk, but her vision was growing dark around the edges and she was having trouble making sense of what was being said in the room. She felt herself falling, but not for long. Tomoya caught her and held her close as the last bit of light faded from the room.

Tomoya brushed the hair out of Kyou's eyes as he held her unconscious body in his arms. The alarming blush was finally beginning to fade and the look of shock had melted from her features. Melissa and Yuki both seemed shocked that she had fainted, but Tomoya wasn't surprised.

"She acts tough." Tomoya smiled despite the tears that whetted his cheeks, "And for the most part, she is. I have no doubt that she would defend her family, her friends, or even her students… to her dying breath. But just like any of us, there are things that scare her too."

"Professor, are you finished with the summary of Kotomi's will?" Melissa asked.

"There is more, but nothing that we need to cover now. After all, Tomoya is a lawyer. I'm sure he will understand everything here." Kobayashi patted the thick folder.

"My forte is international law." Tomoya admitted, "But, I'll see what I can make of it."

"Then, do you mind if we talk for a moment about the research?" Melissa asked.

"Please do." Kobayashi was expecting her to hit him with a bunch of questions about what his fellows at the University of Hokkaido had uncovered so far.

"Excellent!" Melissa noticed Tomoya starting to get up with the still unconscious Kyou in his arms. She turned to him and said, "You should stay here. There is nothing so sciency that you won't be able to follow."

"Okay." Tomoya sat back down again. Yuki helped him to move Kyou into a more comfortable position with her head lying in Tomoya's lap.

"Does the date, May 9th 1993 mean anything to you?" Melissa asked Kobayashi.

"Not really." Kobayashi thought back to that terrible time so many years ago. "It was a few days before Kotomi's birthday, and the airplane accident that took the lives of her parents. Why?"

"Professor… that was the date sent back by the sensor ball." Melissa told him. "That was the date of the parallel world on the other side of the gate."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Kobayashi's eyes widened as he got his first clue as to what could have been so important to make Kotomi irresponsibly dash off to another world the way she did.

"I just found out a few hours ago." Melissa smiled.

"Huh?" Kobayashi wondered how one person could have uncovered something that three hundred of Hokkaido's finest had missed.

"I didn't only send the data to you. I also sent it to Kotomi's and my alma mater. Do not underestimate the college of sciences at William Marsh University. Kotomi is well remembered there and helping to find her has become a matter of pride for them." Melissa boasted.

"Just a minute," Tomoya looked back and forth between Melissa and Kobayashi, "you are thinking she went back in time to see her parents?"

"Don't think of it as back in time." Melissa told him, "It is another parallel universe but she is getting there at an earlier point in that universes time-line."

"What's the difference?" Yuki asked.

"If she went back in time in this universe and told her parents not to take that flight, think of the repercussions it would have on all of us now." Kobayashi told the younger Okazaki in the room.

"Whereas, in a parallel universe, she could stop her parents from taking that flight and not worry about consequences to her own world…" Melissa trailed off as she realized what she was saying. Kobayashi's eyes too were wide with the realization.

"So, she ran off to another world to save her parents from dying, and to save her younger self years of despair and isolation. To change their futures…" Tomoya knew that with such a radical change in her childhood, the other Kotomi would have a vastly different life and a completely different future, "Is a future with me so terrible?"

"Baka!" Melissa slapped Tomoya on the back of the head, "You've got it all wrong! If Kotomi is going to correct accidents and mistakes, she is absolutely going to make sure that her younger self _never_ tells her first, best, and only friend… to go away."

Tomoya remembered that moment. If he had known then what he knew now, he never would have left her alone. But Tomoya the child had done what was asked of him. He went away… and even forgot about her. That made him wonder. How much different would his own life have been if Kotomi's parents had not died. He remembered them as being loving and wonderful people. They had welcomed him into their home as Kotomi's friend. If he had grown up with those kinds of influences in his life, how different would he be by now?

.

Kyou knew she was dreaming. The ground was covered in a cottony fog and the sky was iridescent like mother of pearl. Ahead of her, she saw Kotomi wearing a white billowy dress. She was holding some short ribbons in her hand and facing away towards the horizon.

For a moment, Kyou worried that this might be one of those bad dreams where Kotomi stayed off in the distance no matter how fast she ran, or how hard Kyou tried to get to her. But that wasn't the case and Kyou was soon standing next to the purple haired genius.

"Kotomi-chan." Kyou started the usual exchange.

"Kyou-chan." Kotomi turned toward her friend and had the most cheerful smile Kyou had ever seen on her face. Then, handing the ribbons to Kyou, she said, "I found these. I think they belong to you."

Kyou looked down at what was in her hand and saw that they were not ribbons at all. Again, she found herself confronted with the hated fortunes.

 _*** Greatest Curse  
*** Romance  
*** A good friend's tragedy will requite your greatest desire._

 _*** Future Good Fortune  
*** Hopes and Dreams  
*** A hardship is postponed, but it's day of reckoning will come. Stand firm and strong through the hardship and the treasures you seek will finally be yours._

"They're wrong, you know." Kotomi said airily.

"Huh?" Kyou looked up at Kotomi to see that she was still smiling.

"The fortunes. They are wrong on many points." Kotomi turned away then and waved at a couple in the distance.

"What do you mean?" Kyou squinted her eyes but couldn't make out who the people in the distance were.

"This is not a _tragedy_ … or a _day of reckoning_. So, promise me you'll take care of Tomoya until I come back. Will you do that for me?" Kotomi said in her overly cheerful voice.

"Kotomi… there was an accident when you left. You might not be able to come back." Kyou told her friend.

"An accident?" Kotomi spun around and asked, "Was anyone hurt?"

"Several people were hurt, but they're okay now. But… we lost you and we don't know how to get you back!" Kyou said desperately.

"I am not lost," Kotomi said in a reassuring way, "but it looks like you will be able to _requite your greatest desire_ after all."

"No! I don't want it if I have to lose you." Kyou begged.

"You promised me." Kotomi pulled the lavender haired girl's head and touched foreheads with her. "You promised me and I am going to hold you to it."

"No…" Kyou started to cry when she realized that she was standing alone now. She looked up and saw that Kotomi was walking away from her, already half way to the distant couple standing in the mist. Angrily, she yelled out, "I'll break my promise! I'll leave him! I swear I'll leave him if you don't come back!"

"No you won't." Kotomi called back to her from where she now stood with the unfamiliar couple.

"What makes you think I won't?" Kyou demanded.

"Because you love him too much." Kotomi said. Then she and the couple turned and disappeared as they faced the distant horizon.

Feeling something crackle in her hand, Kyou looked down and saw that the fortunes had become brittle. As if rapidly aging, they crumpled, split, and turned to dust in her hand.

"Oh Kotomi… what... what have you done?"

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 **The Kotomi Continuum 3**

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I hope you have enjoyed my continuing saga of this Kotomi version of the Clannad story. I know it went a little SciFi, but with Kotomi as a principle character, that was bound to happen. Please take a moment to leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts on this yarn.

Also, please look for the third and final book in the series, _The Kotomi Continuum 3_. I hope you enjoy that one as well. If you are interested, I have prepared a little preview for you.

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 **Friday afternoon, December 17, 2010 – Sunohara House**

* * *

Tomoya's new resolve to do better by his friends started the very next day. He and Kyou brought all of the kids over to the house he grew up in – the place where his long time friends Youhei and Yukine lived with their son, Yoichi. It was the little boy's fifth birthday and it marked the age when he would start his schooling the following April as a kindergartner.

Tomoya's own daughter Michiko, was very fond of the Sunohara boy and had spent a lot of time with him since the disappearance of her mother. Even now, she was lying on a mat and had her head in the birthday boy's lap. Yoichi didn't mind and was smiling as he gently patted her head.

"You and Kyou are dressed up pretty nice for a kid's birthday party." Youhei pointed out.

"Yeah… after this, we are going over to the Fujibayashi home to tell her parents about the wedding." Tomoya told his friend.

"Eh? WHAT?" Youhei almost choked on his soda, "You're marrying Kyou in two days and you haven't even told her parents yet?"

"We were hoping that…" Tomoya started to explain, but Youhei actually seemed angry with him.

"You love Michiko and you want to raise your daughter to be a good, dependable, and smart girl, right?" Youhei wagged a finger at his taller friend, "How would you feel if she were in her twenties and showed up out of the blue with some guy. And then she tells you that the two of them will be getting married in two days?"

"If the guy was Yoichi, I would be okay with it." Tomoya answered calmly.

"Huh? What? Really?" Youhei was stunned at the unexpected answer.

"But, I get your point." Tomoya smiled at his friend's confusion, "Honestly, I would rather put this off for a few months, but there are certain… legal requirements."

"Legal requirements?" Youhei said aghast. Then he planted his hands on their backs and started pushing them toward the door, "All right, you two should leave the kids here and just go now."

"Huh?" Kyou was finally pulled out of her silence when Youhei started pushing both of them toward the door and Yukine was already waiting for them with their jackets.

"Take as much time as you need. The kids will be fine here with us." Youhei assured them.

"But…" Tomoya hadn't planned on leaving the kids here and wanted to tell Youhei that his concern was appreciated but probably unnecessary.

"You are about to go do battle with the man that is responsible for making Kyou the person that she is. Don't think too lightly of this!" Youhei warned Tomoya.

"HEY! What is that supposed to mean?" Kyou shouted at Youhei, but continued to put on her outdoor shoes.

"You can be described as aggressive, willful, and formidable…" Yukine mentioned some of Kyou's traits that, while not very ladylike, were not necessarily negative things either. But Youhei added to his wife's carefully chosen list with something unnecessary.

"...and loud." Youhei finished his wife's sentence.

"I AM NOT…" Kyou caught herself before she finished the sentence while shouting. In a quieter voice, and through a lip jutting pout, she said the final word, "… loud."

"I think we have all heard the stories of the many… differences of opinion… that you had with your father." Yukine said gently, "A strong will is not a bad thing. It gives one resolution when the world turns chaotic. But, what I think my dear husband – and your good friend, is trying to say is, both of you may have to deal with that strong will now. So, you should take all the time you need and do your best to keep emotions from boiling over too much."

Kyou blushed because she knew that everything Yukine had just said was as correct about her father… as it was for her. She gave a quick glance at Tomoya to see if he was laughing at her, but he seemed to be concentrating on fastening his jacket at the moment.

"Thank you Youhei, Yukine. Kyou and I will both strive to do our best." Tomoya said as he reached for the door.

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 **Thanks for reading!**


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